I think you should re-evaluate your sense of humor, specificall your disappointingly sad complete lack of one, and perhaps also your insufferable pedantry. You're a buzzkill. Party pooper. Sad sack. Droll to the point where even an Englishman would think you're too dry and humourless. Sheesh.
..no, you're mistaken. I've personally worked with Intel silicon and you have to physically connect to debug ports (that are marked on Production silicon datasheets as 'N/C' or similar) to utilize these debug features. At worst for 'closed box' debugging you need to plug Intel-specific, proprietary debug hardware into on-board USB ports. There is another requirement to enable it that I won't discuss here. You can't access this over the internet.
It's very high on the list of 'important intellectual property' because being able to freely access it would be a great help in reverse-engineering the silicon for purposes of stealing the designs.
This has nothing to do with the NSA or any other government agency it has to do with post-silicon validation, debugging, and BIOS/firmware development. It just so happens that malicious types, if capable of accessing it, could also use it for nefarious purposes.
Correct. For Production silicon, certain one-time-programmable bits ('fuses') are supposed to be programmed, disabling the internal debug features.
However there are ways to re-enable it on a per-boot-cycle basis; you just have to know how. This capability is included and allowed so that 'closed box' debugging can be done by Intel if there is a problem an OEM is having that requires Intel to assist with it. Think of it as a 'backdoor' into the debugging infrastructure of the silicon. The ways and means of temporarily re-enabling the debug features are supposed to be a top secret, because allowing them would make reverse engineering the silicon so much easier, but as with all 'backdoors' if someone has the skills and determination they just might be able to find it on their own.
The only problem with your plan is that political speciation is a Real Thing; you manage to erradicate all the politicians, more will spontaneously emerge from the rest of the population. It becomes a never-ending game of Whack-A-Mole -- at least until there are no more homo sapiens left.
Because they're not *mechanically* limiting the top speed by hamstringing the engines' performance, they're *electronically limiting it* through software control. The engine itself, unleashed, would go *faster* if it could. The torque curve will be the *same* even if the top speed of the vehicle is limited. Therefore the *acceleration curve* will be the same regardless of whether the top speed is capped by the ECC or not; you'll still be able to accelerate off-the-line exactly the same, or punch it to pass someone just as effectively.
Hey, I know, I'll write a small Python script that I'll run that throws up all sorts of bullshit malware warnings, then I'll 'fix' it for them and make big money!
This is okay with you somehow? Or do you just not understand what's going on here? They swindled people, conned them, charged them for unnecessary services based on faked test results.
..okay, but there are plenty of people in the world, professional people, who do not have technical ability when it comes to computers, but they can use them, they just can't diagnose or repair them themselves; they must take it to someone who does know what they're doing. Even mom-and-pop at home with a home computer have a right to not be swindled by unscrupulous organizations. Or do you think everyone has to have the equivalent of a computer science degree before they're allowed to own a computer? Get real.
Just because your top speed is hard-limited by software doesn't mean your rate of acceleration is limited, you'll still have all the horsepower you need, and by the way how many day-to-day circumstances require you to be able to go faster than 122mph? Here in the U.S. anyway anything over 100mph, so far as I remember, is a felony, and the vast majority of drivers wouldn't be able to properly handle a vehicle going that fast anyway.
Besides which, as I've stated previously: there'll be aftermarket work-arounds for all this almost simultaneously with the cars hitting the roads. People who really want to give this law a big middle finger will do it anyway. Even the so-called 'black box' will have a work-around to prevent detection of what they're doing.
The gym I go to uses satellite radio for the music they play over the house speakers. Half the time it's a classic rock channel, which of course is fine. The rest of the time it's some 'pop' channel that plays what could loosely be defined as 'dance music'. Ever hear this shit that uses a shitty gimmick that sounds like a record skipping, but that is also being spun faster and faster? Makes me want to throw things, this cheap-ass music-substitute has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and overall induces a mental form of vomiting in me if you know what I mean; makes me wish I'd bring earplugs to the gym.
That's about what I'd expect from 'music' (term being used as loosely as possible in this context) generated by an 'algorithm' or (even worse) the half-assed, inappropriately termed 'AI' they keep trotting out these days: competely lacking in any creativity (because computers are not capable of true creativity, 'randomness' is not 'creative'), artistry, emotional content, or any other redeeming quality that comprises actual music worth listening to; no better than the 'dance music' I described above, and in fact probably worse.
Is this what our civilization is coming to? 'Art' and 'music' (LOL) being generated by some shitty computer program, all in the name of saving money and making more profit? If so perhaps we don't deserve to survive as a species after all. Color me disgusted.
Nevermind the 'fines' and 'bad press'. There needs to be a Special Hell for people or companies that pull shit like this.
I have never worked for any of these companies (and thank the Universe for that small favor!) but I have like many of you of course 'helped' people I know who are not tech-savvy with computer problems. With power comes responsibility. Taking advantage of people who do not have the knowledge or ability to take care of themselves is just plain evil. I hope that one of the outcomes of this is that Office Depot and this support.com get such a bad reputation because of this that no one trusts them ever again. Probably won't happen but I can hope.
'Driving a car' is NOT just following a set of rules unless you like disasters! In the Real World unforseen things happen all the time and the current crop of computer software just isn't up to it because all it *can* do is 'follow rules'; it needs to know when to *break* the rules for safety reasons, and you need an actual *mind* to do that.
They do them poorly and they'll keep doing them poorly because what they've produced is a evolutionary cul-de-sac. Wrong approach! You're fundamentally wrong.
While I applaud so-called 'white nationalists' (unsophisticated ignorant racist dirtbags, really) being smacked down at every opportunity, the undeniable fact of the matter is that the only way some site like Facebook can effectively enforce policies like this is by having human moderators vet every single post that's made, and that's unsustainable; they have to pay these people, which means selling more and more of people's personal data, which is more and more a violation of people's privacy, which of course is wrong. Facebook and all so-called 'social media' is doomed, and I will not be sad to see it go, and the sooner it dies the better off Humanity will be.
I don't think you understand what I'm talking about. 'Planned obsolescence' means designing in flaws intentionally so the product wears out on a schedule, or perhaps designing it to fall behind state-of-the-art, forcing the customer to purchase an 'updated' version, when you could have designed it better, allowing for greater useful lifetime. What you seem to be confusing these with is 'normal wear and tear'.
Great, so it can, what, zoom in on your personal information, making it easier to steal from you? Fuck that, fuck 'smartphones' in general, nothing but a big fat data security swiss-cheese.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you should re-evaluate your sense of humor, specificall your disappointingly sad complete lack of one, and perhaps also your insufferable pedantry. You're a buzzkill. Party pooper. Sad sack. Droll to the point where even an Englishman would think you're too dry and humourless. Sheesh.
..no, you're mistaken. I've personally worked with Intel silicon and you have to physically connect to debug ports (that are marked on Production silicon datasheets as 'N/C' or similar) to utilize these debug features. At worst for 'closed box' debugging you need to plug Intel-specific, proprietary debug hardware into on-board USB ports. There is another requirement to enable it that I won't discuss here. You can't access this over the internet.
Not a 'rootkit'. Sheesh, I'm naturally paranoid, and I'm the one saying this. See: https://it.slashdot.org/commen...
It's very high on the list of 'important intellectual property' because being able to freely access it would be a great help in reverse-engineering the silicon for purposes of stealing the designs.
This has nothing to do with the NSA or any other government agency it has to do with post-silicon validation, debugging, and BIOS/firmware development. It just so happens that malicious types, if capable of accessing it, could also use it for nefarious purposes.
Correct. For Production silicon, certain one-time-programmable bits ('fuses') are supposed to be programmed, disabling the internal debug features.
However there are ways to re-enable it on a per-boot-cycle basis; you just have to know how. This capability is included and allowed so that 'closed box' debugging can be done by Intel if there is a problem an OEM is having that requires Intel to assist with it. Think of it as a 'backdoor' into the debugging infrastructure of the silicon. The ways and means of temporarily re-enabling the debug features are supposed to be a top secret, because allowing them would make reverse engineering the silicon so much easier, but as with all 'backdoors' if someone has the skills and determination they just might be able to find it on their own.
The only problem with your plan is that political speciation is a Real Thing; you manage to erradicate all the politicians, more will spontaneously emerge from the rest of the population. It becomes a never-ending game of Whack-A-Mole -- at least until there are no more homo sapiens left.
Facebook Secretly Explored Building Bird-Size Drones To Ferry Personal Data From People With Bad Internet Connections
Amirite?
Just sayin'. Especially in the case of Miscreant-o-soft.
You're either not very smart, or you're just a shitty troll; which is it?
You've got all you're getting from me. Figure it out on your own.
Because they're not *mechanically* limiting the top speed by hamstringing the engines' performance, they're *electronically limiting it* through software control. The engine itself, unleashed, would go *faster* if it could. The torque curve will be the *same* even if the top speed of the vehicle is limited. Therefore the *acceleration curve* will be the same regardless of whether the top speed is capped by the ECC or not; you'll still be able to accelerate off-the-line exactly the same, or punch it to pass someone just as effectively.
Hey, I know, I'll write a small Python script that I'll run that throws up all sorts of bullshit malware warnings, then I'll 'fix' it for them and make big money!
This is okay with you somehow? Or do you just not understand what's going on here? They swindled people, conned them, charged them for unnecessary services based on faked test results.
..okay, but there are plenty of people in the world, professional people, who do not have technical ability when it comes to computers, but they can use them, they just can't diagnose or repair them themselves; they must take it to someone who does know what they're doing. Even mom-and-pop at home with a home computer have a right to not be swindled by unscrupulous organizations. Or do you think everyone has to have the equivalent of a computer science degree before they're allowed to own a computer? Get real.
If you're going to troll, you could at least be bothered to put some effort into it, you piece of garbage. YOU HAVE TO GO BACK: 4chan.org/b
Just because your top speed is hard-limited by software doesn't mean your rate of acceleration is limited, you'll still have all the horsepower you need, and by the way how many day-to-day circumstances require you to be able to go faster than 122mph? Here in the U.S. anyway anything over 100mph, so far as I remember, is a felony, and the vast majority of drivers wouldn't be able to properly handle a vehicle going that fast anyway.
Besides which, as I've stated previously: there'll be aftermarket work-arounds for all this almost simultaneously with the cars hitting the roads. People who really want to give this law a big middle finger will do it anyway. Even the so-called 'black box' will have a work-around to prevent detection of what they're doing.
The gym I go to uses satellite radio for the music they play over the house speakers. Half the time it's a classic rock channel, which of course is fine. The rest of the time it's some 'pop' channel that plays what could loosely be defined as 'dance music'. Ever hear this shit that uses a shitty gimmick that sounds like a record skipping, but that is also being spun faster and faster? Makes me want to throw things, this cheap-ass music-substitute has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and overall induces a mental form of vomiting in me if you know what I mean; makes me wish I'd bring earplugs to the gym.
That's about what I'd expect from 'music' (term being used as loosely as possible in this context) generated by an 'algorithm' or (even worse) the half-assed, inappropriately termed 'AI' they keep trotting out these days: competely lacking in any creativity (because computers are not capable of true creativity, 'randomness' is not 'creative'), artistry, emotional content, or any other redeeming quality that comprises actual music worth listening to; no better than the 'dance music' I described above, and in fact probably worse.
Is this what our civilization is coming to? 'Art' and 'music' (LOL) being generated by some shitty computer program, all in the name of saving money and making more profit? If so perhaps we don't deserve to survive as a species after all. Color me disgusted.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Law without mercy is not justice.
Nevermind the 'fines' and 'bad press'. There needs to be a Special Hell for people or companies that pull shit like this.
I have never worked for any of these companies (and thank the Universe for that small favor!) but I have like many of you of course 'helped' people I know who are not tech-savvy with computer problems. With power comes responsibility. Taking advantage of people who do not have the knowledge or ability to take care of themselves is just plain evil. I hope that one of the outcomes of this is that Office Depot and this support.com get such a bad reputation because of this that no one trusts them ever again. Probably won't happen but I can hope.
Not what I heard.
You can't program a computer to make a JUDGEMENT CALL as to when to BREAK A RULE, you idiot, it requires a SENTIENT MIND!
'Driving a car' is NOT just following a set of rules unless you like disasters! In the Real World unforseen things happen all the time and the current crop of computer software just isn't up to it because all it *can* do is 'follow rules'; it needs to know when to *break* the rules for safety reasons, and you need an actual *mind* to do that.
They do them poorly and they'll keep doing them poorly because what they've produced is a evolutionary cul-de-sac. Wrong approach! You're fundamentally wrong.
While I applaud so-called 'white nationalists' (unsophisticated ignorant racist dirtbags, really) being smacked down at every opportunity, the undeniable fact of the matter is that the only way some site like Facebook can effectively enforce policies like this is by having human moderators vet every single post that's made, and that's unsustainable; they have to pay these people, which means selling more and more of people's personal data, which is more and more a violation of people's privacy, which of course is wrong. Facebook and all so-called 'social media' is doomed, and I will not be sad to see it go, and the sooner it dies the better off Humanity will be.
I don't think you understand what I'm talking about. 'Planned obsolescence' means designing in flaws intentionally so the product wears out on a schedule, or perhaps designing it to fall behind state-of-the-art, forcing the customer to purchase an 'updated' version, when you could have designed it better, allowing for greater useful lifetime. What you seem to be confusing these with is 'normal wear and tear'.
Great, so it can, what, zoom in on your personal information, making it easier to steal from you? Fuck that, fuck 'smartphones' in general, nothing but a big fat data security swiss-cheese.