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User: mattrad

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  1. Re:wordpress, again? on 30K WordPress Blogs Infected With the Latest Malware Scam · · Score: 1

    Well my clicking-averse friend, you need managewp.com. One login and a click or two, and you've updated all those 15 installs. Either that or migrate everything to multisite (Backup Buddy is great for that).

  2. Re:Worth every penny ... on Intel Buys McAfee · · Score: 1

    You're right that on-demand scanning has a high CPU cost. But Intel haven't bought McAfee to change the on-demand settings.

    They're going to move security into hardware. Moving it out of the OS and further down the stack is smart, especially regarding rootkits, and will make attack vectors harder and more firmware-specific. Intel has already been adding support for virtualisation and cryptography (see i7 series).

    All of this combined is very interesting to anyone running a lot of iron and/or VMs on top. You get a performance increase, plus remove the hassle from keeping AV up to date at OS level. Consumers will probably benefit eventually too.

    This acquisition is also quite interesting in light of Intel's move into mobile. Sandboxing isn't going to keep mobile OSes safe for long.

    But coming back to your original point about massive govt/military AV subscriptions, I'm presuming that Intel has a clue, and isn't doing this just to bump short-term company figures.

  3. Re:Where's the market? on Why the Google Android Phone Isn't Taking Off · · Score: 1

    I'm also a fan of Gruber. But he, like many US tech pundits, often fall down when it comes to the wider mobile arena. My main point is that Android is so compelling to manfacturers; it leaves them free to concentrate on the real differentiators - hardware and form factor. This will increasingly enable them to drive down the cost to produce their phones. Their customers, the carriers, always want to sell phones that cost them little to buy, especially when they offer a slick user experience that their customers increasingly hanker after. [Oblig. car analogy] If you can offer an almost-BMW experience at a Toyota price, then people will go for it.

    I agree that the US cell phone market has strange priorities, but show them the money, and they will follow. IMHO.

  4. Re:Where's the market? on Why the Google Android Phone Isn't Taking Off · · Score: 1

    Gahhh! You're falling into the same trap as Gruber. Android does not have to aim for the Porsche market, you don't have to *beat* the iPhone, and this isn't a zero-sum game. Google's mobile OS has the potential to be *the* main platform for high and medium-end phones, and possibly low-end ones as well.

    Ask yourself why Android is so attractive to so many phone manufacturers? It allows them to dramatically lower the Bill of Materials and the R&D budget. They no longer have to worry about developing and maintaining their own operating systems, they just need to tinker around the edges. This is a huge cost saving.

    Furthermore, if they're in the business of licensing the phone OS, such as HTC with Windows Mobile, then Android phones are a no-brainer. It enables them to lower the cost of producing the phone (the B.O.M.), meaning their customers - the phone carriers - can offer those phones free on relatively low cost contracts to the end-users.

    And just wait until you can pick up an Android-powered smartphone for $99 without a contract e.g. the HTC Click or a Samsung device. That's likely to happen to 2010. Android at 3% and it's a failure? I don't think so. This one's a slow burner.

  5. Re:Already available in England on Web Access Over Power Lines · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, that's incorrect.

    Blink Broadband is a rebadged-BT Wholesale ADSL offering. What they also offer is Homeplug-style in-house powerline networking (Blink Plug option). There is no WAN BPL producr.

    Scottish and Southern do have a BPL *trial* in place but only in 4 remote locations. AFAIK they have no plans for a national roll-out.

  6. Re:Not too bad... Yet on SMS SPAM to be Banned Down Under? · · Score: 1

    If you have any complaints about unsolicited SMS Spam in the UK, or about any Premium Rate Services, contact ICSTIS

  7. Re:So what? on Sell Out: Blocking an Open Net · · Score: 1

    If you're interested in the interdependence of the US govt and US corporations, take a look at "Selling America's Culture To The World", by Nancy Snow - there's a review here: http://www.ecn.org/communitas/en/en131.html.

    But does the Saudi govt's blocking of web sites really constitute such a stonewall against its citizens getting free access? What about simply dialling an ISP located in another country without such restrictions? Admittedly that's not that cheap, but we're not talking about a poor country.

  8. Re:Why do you need a map? on More WTC News · · Score: 2, Informative

    The NY Times has a few maps of which buildings have collapsed/are unstable (Seems registration is uneeded at the moment too).

    But I agree with typical geek - if you're not needed there, stay out of the way.

  9. Re:The best part on Spying and Technology: Robert Philip Hanssen · · Score: 1

    hahahaha! That's what I love about /. You can get anything from good info on floppy track writing (see below) to the dumbest, ill-informed naive post (see above).

    >Is seems the US government's view is it's ok to spy, as long as your're spying FOR the US.

    Double Standard? No, just one single standard, world-wide. Our spys good, your spys bad. It's quite simple. Feel free to remove your head from the sand anytime now.

  10. A little confused - what's the diff? on Enlightenment now KDE compliant · · Score: 1

    What's the difference between window managers like E, and desktops such as KDE/Gnome? What essentially are their contrasting functions?

    Also, I'm sticking Linux on a 486/100mhz laptop with 12mb RAM. I know this'll run X, but how about a window manager like E that's a step above, say, twm?