Re: Clearly

I've never seen one before. No one has, but...

Re: Mine does this, and has done since day one

Agreed, we can use modem mode but that still means we have paid for this lump of electronic crap. VM may say is comes free when you upgrade beyond a 20Mb/s service (the limit of the old Motorola cable modems) but we still had to pay for it to be "activated" even if we installed & configured it ourselves and there will be something factored into our bills to cover the cost as well.

With the TV service VM give us the option to having a simple digital STB or paying extra for a Tivo so for our broadband give us the option of a small-footprint low-power modem that will run at 100Mb/s+ or paying extra for an all-in-one modem-router-switch-ap.

Assuming the rumours are correct that VM execs are mulling this over does anyone know the best place to comment to have a small chance of influencing this decision?

Re: Well, you haters can hate

You Sir are a facetious sh*t and I upvote you for it!

Indeed...

And why no comparison between the free and pay-for versions from companies like AVG, Avast and Avira? Also as other have said the failure to test products with widely-used non-MS browsers is a big gap.

Re: apple gimmick?

pete: you're a bloke and you're saying you DON'T ball touch??

Unfortunately it seems that Apple might be doing it again: getting us to part with our hard-earned for something that we don't really need as there is already a perfectly good (and free in this case) non-electronic method of achieving the same result, i.e. a satisfying ball-scratch.

Conflation part II: GM =/= mutation/evolution in the wild

You are right to separate out the different issues in the whole GM Pandora's box but you do so selectively, are guilty of your own conflation and ignore the interaction of these issues..

The first poster, asdf points out that there are proven links between obesity and cancer (and many other serious health epidemics in wealthy countries), not the simplistic assertion that "GM causes cancer." And you suggest that creating GMOs is no different from random genetic mutation in the wild which is frankly utter bollocks. On the one hand random genetic mutation leads to small incremental changes over time in the context of an ecosystem in which all organisms are evolving. On the other hand lab-created GMOs are specifically designed to out-compete organisms in the wider ecosystem and thus have a far greater potential for unpredictable consequences when released in the wild.

Finally it is precisely amoral profit-driven semi-monopolies like Monsanto that are creating these GMOs and lobbying to have them released into the wild. Do you trust them to do due diligence with regard to large parts of the planet's ecosystem with their track record so far? I certainly don't.

Re: Virginmedia has routing problem...

Indeed. And I'd be willing to bet that their service status page says something like: Everything is DANDY! Don't you just LURVE having the best broadband in the GALAXY??

Fortunately I seem to be unaffected by this particular VM f*ck-up.

Re: Amish

micheal you clearly know nothing: the Amish aren't allowed to play football as the ball is heretically spherical and may lead those of the faith to the hellish idea that the world is not flat!

Re: Christian beliefs and ideals

badmonkey: don't forget a penchant for shifting paedophile priests from one parish to another so the law doesn't catch up with them

Re: patent arena

Damn! I've never gone pay-per-view in my life up to now but the prospect of seeing Steve Ballmer's fat sweaty carcass getting pummelled would have me reaching for my debit card! qB^D

Re: 'Couple of decades'

Thanks Peter, as I typed "a couple of decades" I had the feeling that someone more knowledgeable than I would point out that it was a lot longer! :-)

Re: Big deal....

No, it's not a big deal in the sense that you can (presumably) configure this search feature to not search beyond the local machine or simply use a different search tool (find has worked well for a couple of decades...) but this is at best Canonical being disingenuous and underhand.

Home Lens does not suggest "send my search in plain text over the net to a 3rd party". And as for the results not being ads but "integrating online scope results into the home lens of the dash"?? WTF?!? My hopeless managers would struggle to come up with bullsh*t double-speak like that!

Oh and for the record I'm a long-time Linux (and Ubuntu) user.

Re: anticompetitve?

Way to miss the point eulampios: Acer being shite and failing to seriously address the Windoze tax doesn't exonerate Google from flagrantly using their monopoly position to further their own interests at the expense of a potential competitor and ultimately end users.

Speaking of Nokia...

...don't Alibaba have their number? If WinPho tanks any further Nokia may not give a stuff what M$ say to them.

But for the record, as an Android user and advocate this is yet another totally sucky thing done by Google. Not evil but monopolistic anti-competitive practice for sure.

Re: Full Frame

Presumably because Nikon, Canon, Sony, et al know that they can sell APS-C sensor cameras to the consumer market and make a killing on APS-C lenses that still cost the same or more than the equivalent AF 35mm lenses from old film camera systems: much less of that expensive glass == much bigger profits.

It's called monopoly capitalism apparently.

Re: But, but, but ...

Because the crims can "legitimately" use a URL shortening service like bit.ly or tinyurl that need not be be compromised. The "link" on the shortening service doesn't actually go anywhere - it's a URI that is itself the attack site.

So effectively this vulnerability makes shortening services attack sites and therefore it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect them to sanitise the links that they accept. Maybe they even do this already, anyone?

"Quality" OEMs

And as anyone who fixes PCs knows, we *never* have nightmares with shed-loads of Acer laptops and Dell desktops built to the headline price set by the marketing department to sell shed-loads of boxes to unwary buyers. As if.

</sarky-fucker>

Re: So what?

@frank: steady on - another story like this could generate a similar Twatter-splat of outrage and tip the intertubes over into...ermm....oh yeah, reality check...more utter indifference.

Slow news week? Meh.

Re: Here we go!!!!

OHOHO! Is funny because he say is great when his brain know it not true!

Re: Confusing article

@diodesign: that's a somewhat complacent and narrow view. A not unlikely scenario is that this was created by a security agency like the CIA who have a well-documented penchant "extraordinarily rendering" (read: violently kidnapping) foreign citizens to assorted locations around the globe to be detained and tortured.

They have done this with the flimsiest of suspicion (bearing in mind that extra-judicial kidnapping, imprisonment, torture and assassination are illegal by definition and in many other ways). So if they happened to have had a tool like this to target potential "terrorists" over the past few years it would almost certainly have been used to assist such actions.

No, Flame/sKyWIper is not a "weapon of annihilation" (nice paper tiger!) but that wouldn't be much comfort to anyone languishing in an interrogation facility in Uzbekistan, would it?

Re: So....

@jonathanb: the reason you probably don't get much spam from Hotmail is that most decent spam filters (like SpamAssassin or those based on it) have rules that boost the spam score of anything from a Hotmail domain - and very sensible that is in my experience.

Re: Old hat - but the bigger story is...

Two NHS trusts collaborate to produce an open source solution in-house rather than spending millions on a system badly specified by pen-pushers and bureaucrats and badly implemented by money-grabbing private contractors.

I think that's a pretty fucking big story that large sections of the cash-strapped public sector could learn from: valuing skilled staff, delivering a good service and saving money not only for the institutions that developed the system but potentially for the sector as a whole.

Re: Eleven and a half grand?

Apparently not :-)

Now where did I put that baseless conspiracy theory...

Possibly a silly condition placed on them by GCHQ securocrats to enhance the mystique of these papers.

The nameless (again pointless security theatre) from GCHQ interviewed on Radio 4 about this was keen to stress the claim that Turing's papers could not possibly have been released any earlier because of their sensitive nature. We are supposed to read into this that GCHQ are: (a) diligently doing their bit to protect Blighty from code-breaking jihadis, Ruskies and Sino-hackers, and (b) emphasising Turing's total genius (while still brushing under the carpet the injustice of the British state hounding him for his homosexuality).

I don't doubt the importance of this work done by Turing and others at the time but it is farcical for GCHQ to engage in a PR exercise claiming they could not have been released decades ago.

Re: A little bit of knowledge does no harm - it's essential

@Andrew Orlowski: again with the tabloid journalist techniques - you conflate coding and computer science. When I did my computer science degree there was a lot more to it than just coding and though that was way back the 80s it is no different now.

Re: A little bit of knowledge does no harm - it's essential

Quite right. Mr Orlowski seems to be dipping into his pal Toby Young's tabloid journalistic toolbox, in this case making use of the false dichotomy. What most people are arguing for is ICT in schools to be more like computer science and less like ECDL.

Neither Rory Cellan-Jones nor Michael Gove have raised the paper tiger of compulsory coding lessons in schools but this article has certainly has its intended effect of drawing the fire of the Daily Wail commentards below lining up to shoot down not only compulsory coding but also any whiff of equality in education and possibly the return of free school milk too.

For the record: I have no remit for Michael Gove or his party - on the scale of over-educated chinless wankers he is right up there with Toby Young.

Re: @IanMcNee (was: @ Ian McNee (was:jake: you're missing the point!))

jake: I'm still reeling from the idea of your point slipping over my head - are you so flirtatious with all commentards?? I suppose I should just be thankful that your aim isn't better...*ahem*

Re: @ Ian McNee (was:jake: you're missing the point!)

Well spotted Mr Beggar - I am indeed that cynical facetious arsehole!

jake: you're missing the point!

How else is some marketing wanker going to justify his/her existence if they cannot flog pointless expensive tat to the credulous middle classes?

Just be thankful that one of this ilk has not yet tried to "re-brand" (i.e. new name, couple of paragraphs of snake oil pseudo-science and triple the price) the "gadgets" that make sleep restful and pleasurable: quality pillow, mattress, duvet and sheets.

Re: Please! Spare us the mobile device willy-waggling!

Alistair: just in case it wasn't obvious my futile rant was not directed at you :-)

And Aaron, did I mention spill-proof? Assuming you've not also flooded your USB ports I recommend a Cherry keyboard - made by serious Germans with plenty of that vorsprung durch technik thingamabob that they have.

Re: The media once again trolled by charlatans?

@diodesign: (is that you John??) Yes, from your article it does become clear to anyone vaguely familiar with Linux security and bug tracking that the problem was (it's been patched already M$ trolls!) with wicd rather than BackTrack. That was my immediate thought (having recently played with wicd after failing to get f***ing Network Manager to play nicely on a Fedora laptop recently).

The problem is that your headline: Student stiffs penetration tool BackTrack Linux with 0-day screams "Ooh! Clever InfoSec Linux White Hats Caught With Pants Down!" - and with your pedigree in reporting security stories recently we know you can do much better. We all drop the ball now and again :-)

Re: Carefull, be vary carefull - it's not that simple

@kirovs: read the article...

"...the group’s messages on Pastebin and posted on the defaced sites will largely have failed to reach their audience given that they were written in English.

Anonymous seems to be working on the latter issue, however, having sent a tweet out calling for help from would-be translators."

Chinese hackers? Perhaps not after all.

Re: Carefull, be vary carefull - it's not that simple

Both the anons and some of the commentards here seem to have a very naive view of Chinese society based on the one dimensional picture painted by western governments and media.

Whilst there is exploitation, repression and social unrest in China (ummm..and that's so different from the USA et al how??) there is also a lot of popular patriotic support for the country and the national government as well - largely based on the huge economic advances China has made over the past three decades.

That popular support is unsurprisingly reflected in the hacker culture within China e.g. the Honker Union. If I were one of the anons that participated in this rather futile defacement spree I'd be more worried about having my life pWn3d by patriotic Chinese hacktivists than some kind of reprisal from the Chinese authorities.

Re: I'm confused...

Rufus: you are clearly very confused - I don't think anyone is arguing that things taking on human form (anthropomorphic) causes climate change. Rather the argument is about human beings causing (anthropogenic) climate change.

On this point this review of the predictive value earlier models based on the premise that CO2 is a climate change driver is yet another convincing straw breaking the pseudo-scientific back of the deniers.

Re: April Fool??

Yes, yes, yes JDX - we all know that, but it's not quite that simple is it?

The key information here is that exploits have been found in the wild so there has been a period of time when machines may already have been compromised and this compromise will likely not have been detected - certainly not by lay users who are the main target of this advice. In that situation using your banking website (or any other that uses sensitive credentials) at all is utterly foolish.

Even if the machine is currently clean it's a stretch to imagine most lay users will take this advice as meaning closing all other browser tabs and web-enabled applications that are potentially vulnerable. Any advice other than not using this software until it is patched is irresponsible.

Re: Tablet effect?

You may have a point about the stats but let's not pretend that the iPhad-fondling Nathan Barleys of this world are "tech savvy" - unless "tech savvy" now means that you need an app to decide what superfood salad you're going have for your lunch at Silicon Roundabout.

Re: good idea

I'd be far more worried about some numpty getting frustrated stuck in traffic on his way home on a Friday afternoon and trying a take-off from the hard shoulder of the motorway - a much more likely scenario and just as likely to cause multiple fatalities/injuries and widespread disruption.

Re: just out of interest

Yes - on the forehead: iMugged

Re: Bigger than Apple and Farcebook combined??

Astonishing! You don't say?! The article has been ammended - it originally stated £300/share peak price.

You'll find that if you wait long enough other things in the world around you are also subject to change.