Slashdot Mirror


User: swinefc

swinefc's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
28
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 28

  1. It was Moops, not Moors

  2. Re:i don't like that name on Scientists Have Finally Sampled the Most Abundant Material On Earth · · Score: 1

    How about Unobtainium?

  3. Re:Bigger problem: stupid 'optimizations' on Heartbleed Coder: Bug In OpenSSL Was an Honest Mistake · · Score: 2

    While I agree with you about premature optimization, stop and think for a minute how many trillions of trillions this one bit of code has executed. If you do the math (left for the reader), then there is a real world cost to not optimizing this code. Electricity and time usage are affected.

  4. Re:Does everything need to be smart? on Nest Halts Sales of Smart Fire Alarm After Discovering Dangerous Flaw · · Score: 1

    The smart feature is the one they disabled. It is a feature called wave to dismiss. It's the entire reason I bought one. My wife often burns things in the oven and sets off the smoke detector. The wave to dismiss feature gave us an option besides taking out the battery.

    I hear you thinking: get a smarter wife and not a smarter smoke detector. C'est la vie

  5. Cold Dead Hands on More Than 1 In 4 Car Crashes Involve Cellphone Use · · Score: 1

    Nooooooope. Not taking my phone. Nope.

  6. Solar Powered Car on Solar Lull Could Cause Colder Winters In Europe · · Score: 1

    The solar powered car I drive to save the planet from global warming has sucked all the energy from the sun? Oh the irony!

  7. Re:Hard to have this happen on Android... on Starbucks Phone App Stores Password Unencrypted · · Score: 1

    Got it. I had always assumed infection was at an operating system level. A single installed app with overreaching access to public spaces and services is a pain, but not the windows virus experience I imagined.

    The ability for a process to launch at boot makes this a worse problem. iOS 7's new backgrounding is close to the same problem if / when malware gets into the Apple App Store.

    Nice to know that simply deleting the app will remove any trace of the Mal-Ware.

    Thanks for the expert information.

  8. Re:Hard to have this happen on Android... on Starbucks Phone App Stores Password Unencrypted · · Score: 1

    Thank you very much for the reply.

    Then how do these malware apps spread or infect devices? Or is that just an over exaggerated example that really doesn't happen.

  9. Re:Hard to have this happen on Android... on Starbucks Phone App Stores Password Unencrypted · · Score: 1

    Thank you. I didn't realize device specific keys are fused into the processor itself. This would, of course, render my comment about access to the flash chips incorrect.

    Storing it in the keychain (with the correct protection class) would prevent access even for an unencrypted backup.

    Also, specifically asking for per file data protection would prevent access for an unencrypted backup.

    Basically, doing anything other than the bare minimum would have prevented access to the Starbucks data.

    Does anyone have any answers for my Android question?

  10. Re:Hard to have this happen on Android... on Starbucks Phone App Stores Password Unencrypted · · Score: 2

    iOS is actually very similar. Without an application like PhoneView or Xcode, just connecting a device will not provide obvious access to per application data that is not explicitly shared. If the device is locked, then access is unavailable even to those methods. If the application itself requested data protection, then even physical access to the flash chips would prove useless. Of course, a developer who decided to store everything in plain text would probably not take the extra strep to request encryption. I just wonder why they didn't use the system Keychain. Easy to use and the OS takes care of all these problems.

    Android question... I realize that an app by default doesn't have access to other app's per user data, but can an app request root or access an other's data in a permissions request presented to the user? My concern with Android security has always been that lay people do not read or even understand the implications of permission dialogs presented to them. So, could another malicious app gain access to the Starbucks data through laziness or ignorance of the user?
     

  11. Time Travel on Comet ISON Survives Perihelion (Barely) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe it went back in time. You know, to save some whales.

  12. Re:The C programming language on What Is the Most Influential Programming Book? · · Score: 2

    First edition, K&R. None of this ANSI standard stuff.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language

  13. Re:Now all we need is... on Sequencing the Weed Genome · · Score: 1

    Isn't this Kassa from Stargate?

    aka Evil Orville Redenbacher

    Get all the population jonesing for space corn.

  14. Re:Scribd in HTML5 on Scribd Switches To HTML5 · · Score: 1

    When IE starts to actually conform to a standard I usually start to worry.

    Don't worry. IE has its own way of doing @font-face. To be fair, IE has supported font-face the longest. Just with its own file format.

  15. Working Perfectly on The Seven Hidden Browsers In the Windows Ballot · · Score: 1

    I think this setup is working. It is creating real competition. Sure, the seven browsers offered right now are crap, but before MS was forced to offer choices, these browsers would have zero exposure. There was little incentive to try to update any browser that wasn't backed by someone with deep pockets. So, no one tried. Most of these are simple pet projects. Now, developers might be interested. Investors have a way to inexpensively get software in front of millions of users. These choices will only get better. The barrier to entry has been lowered. Microsoft has been forced to compete with the little guy. Right now, the little guy is loosing, but these seven have nowhere to go, but up.

    Score one for the EU. They had the balls to make change instead of just fining M$ millions of their billions.

  16. Re:Nothing quite like a "timely" response on Microsoft Finally To Patch 17-Year-Old Bug · · Score: 1

    WOW! You just blew my mind

  17. Re:Choice to Make on Cellphone Radiation May Protect Brain From Alzheimers · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Until now, I believed as you do... "Cell phones are not actually known to cause any health problems". Low level RF is already in our natural habitat.

    Unfortunately, this article is worrisome, because the study showed a positive effect. The problem is that it had any affect at all. If cell phone radiation can affect Alzheimer's, then cell phone radiation has an affect, positive or negative is just a modifier.

  18. Re:What about making other things more secure firs on Bruce Schneier On Airport Security · · Score: 1

    Quick Google search shows that 300,000 people are killed by obesity each year. Time to ban cheeseburgers.

    Please let the madness of trying to ban / legislate away all the things that can hurt us.

    The question becomes how far is too far? I think as long as I wake up each morning without fearing for my life, then a reasonable level of safety has been achieved.

    I like to talk on the phone while driving. BTW, I find the radio much more distracting.

  19. Sometimes R&D isn't R&D on Microsoft Accused of Squandering Billions On R&D · · Score: 5, Informative

    Depending on how Microsoft classifies it's workforce, this may be a simple labeling issue, Many companies call future development work R&D for tax purposes. I believe you can deduct or amortize part of your R&D budget. So, Windows 8 may very well be "R&D".

  20. Re:Paying your dues on How Will Recent Financial Downturns Affect IT Jobs? · · Score: 1

    I wrote a quick app to test this a while back. This is called the Martingale system.

    Needless to say it doesn't work. Millions of iterations showed that most of the time, you hit the table limit long before a winning bet during a loosing streak (which happens very frequently). You end up betting millions to gain $10.

    The casinos love it when you try this, btw.

    In a coin flip, past performance is not an indicator of future events.

  21. Re:01.com on Email-only Providers? · · Score: 1

    I can second 01.com. Although I just switched to them 4 weeks ago, they've been great. Very tech savvy group that reminds me of speakeasy.

    After hosting my own sendmail/dovecot setup for years, I was looking for something a little more feature rich. I liked Zimbra and decided the price was right.

  22. Re:Curious to see where this one goes... on Lawsuit Claims Nvidia Execs Concealed Serious Flaw · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the heads up. Would you happen to know the name of the product or avenue to get this level of service for an Apple laptop? I'm not talking about personal here, but business / enterprise.

    Most of my clients are small businesses. I have a hard time recommending Apple laptop hardware because of the support turn around. Larger organizations can afford spares, but smaller clients cannot.

    I do see that AppleCare will provide onside service for desktops and AppleCare Premium will provide 4 hour response for Xserve technologies. However, I do not see a product for the MacBook Pro.

    Thank you for any information you can provide.

  23. Re:Curious to see where this one goes... on Lawsuit Claims Nvidia Execs Concealed Serious Flaw · · Score: 1

    I too had a MacBook Pro fail with a Nvidia chip of death. It was out of warranty by a three months. I was worried about paying $1200, but thankfully, Apple's flat-fee repair came through. All in all, I'm happy with Apple's response. I do expect them to eventually provide a refund.

    I don't know about Apple's "legendary" customer service, but I do know if this was a business account with Dell, it would have been fixed that day. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer similar services.

  24. Re:Summary and Questions on Secretly Monopolizing the CPU Without Being Root · · Score: 4, Informative

    Windows is affected, but not Vista.
    Vista changed to counting actual CPU cycle count register. The goal was to prevent process starvation in high I/O situations, but it also addresses this issue as well.
    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues /2007/02/VistaKernel/

  25. Don't do what I did on Software Engineering Demo for a K-5 Career Fair? · · Score: 1

    Just make sure you encourage them. A friend's son (11ish) was interested in how to program games. Thinking along the same lines I wanted to keep his interest, but messed up by wanting to present a true to life view. So, I told him about teams and specializations. I told him that for a game like Doom3 there are many many people and it takes years to create.

    He wasn't crying when we were done, but I think basket weaving was a more attractive career choice.