* Posts by Pierre

913 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

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US gov may forbid BAE Eurofighter sale to Saudis

Pierre
Pirate

@ Solomon Grundy (firearms)

Yeah right. We can see how people who still have the "right to firearms" have control over their "democratically elected" government. The "US and A" are a perfect example... sure, you're not safe, your kids are not safe, even at school, but on top of that you are toothless, clawless and pantless (not to mention the "bend over" part. Or the fact that "they" are not even using AstroGlide anymore).

Too bad for you.

Now where is the International-ninja-bashing-a-Yank-pirate icon? ARRRRRRRRHHHH back in your face will make it in the meantime. Take that!

Pierre
Joke

"Euro"fighter?

So everyone got to build a part of it, but the Brits were just not up to it and outsourced the job to the US? Bad, bad Brits. But the mental image of the US used as a sweatshop for the UK is pleasant though. And that would explain why the thing is so lame.

Second possibility: "As proved by numerous Holliwood movies, your planes were actually concepted and manufactured by us, so you owe us royalties". Poor Yanks, they're being ripped off by everyone. Like, you know, Linux and all other FS projects being just some re-branded MS or SCO code...

BOFH: Licensing model

Pierre
Stop

PS: WTF is the legend for?

He who needs a legend explaining what BOFH means, is clearly not ready the article anyway. So why? Inqueering minds need to know (lame punt, I know. couldn't resist).

Pierre

Foul scent

So that's where the distinctive smell depicted here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/18/euro_whiff comes from.

@ Will Godfrey "keep an eye on the PFY. He's getting good - maybe too good"

That's been taken care of methink. The PFY had a muffin too, if I'm not mistaken.

Malodorous Europe gasses UK

Pierre

It's Al Queda

Islamic warmongers trying to sabottage Ol'Blighty glorious morale. That, or someone REALY doesn't want to investigate the Phorm story and has to pretend they're busy.

F1 chief seeks French ban on orgy video

Pierre

ban it in France????

Why would we French people want to watch this lame vid??? We all do worst every week-end (for those of us who have to work during the week, that is). Plus, sharing bed with nazis is something we're not really afraid of. You even get a free haircut afterward!

Funny thing is, if you want to have action with a IIIrd-Reich-like dressed lady, the last person you want to ask is a German lady. For some obscure reason, they tend to think it's not funny (not that I tried, of course...).

(New) dirt-cheap bots attack Hotmail Captchas

Pierre

@TranceMist

"Every email should cost something to send, say $0.01 per recipient, then there would be no more SPAM."

How do you charge? Credit card? Phail.

Google data centers snub Africa, Oz, and anything near Wyoming

Pierre
Joke

Quite logical

Africa is in the way of being the new MSLand (thanks to extensive briber^H financial help for developpment -Mandriva story anyone?), so no Google allowed. Kangaroos and wombats don't need Google, they just go to NZ when they want to have some fun (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/28/wombat_incident/). As for Wyoming (and the surrounding area), well... do they even have computers there?

World Bank chief: Ethanol cars run on human misery

Pierre

@ Ishkandar

"that's because the World Bank is an American-run organisation that is for the benefit of the Americans."

That was exactly my point. Ethanol is BAD for World Bank because Texaco doesn't get money from it. Recycled (or brand new) oil in unmodified diesel engines is BAD for World bank (and for most of "Western" govs) because Texaco, Shell and company can't make money out of it. Lobbying at its worst. I must mention here that putting 20 to 50 % oil in your diesel engine actually helps your local colza producer, which re-equilibrates "world economy" because we don't need to flood third-world countries with our heavily-subventionned excedents anymore. Still the World Bank (and consorts) will never agree to that, because it goes against their very aim, which is to get as much money from developping countries as they can. And that implies the need to keep them "underdevelopped".

Pierre

Colza oil

in diesel engines. cheaper and easier than any other "biofuel" scheme. you can add 20 to 50% of oil in the regular gasoil, and it's better for the engine than regular gasoil. The problem is, Texaco don't get money from that. They don't get much from ethanol either. Which might shed a new light on Zoellick's position.

And let's face it, all actions by the world bank so far tended to increase poverty and hunger in developping countries.

Local council uses snooping laws to spy on three-year-old

Pierre

@ Michael on RIPA and phorm

"The other day as I pointed out, you were all salivating at how great RIPA was because it made Phorm illegal. Now it's the worst piece of legislation ever passed once again"

Why do you dephorm the facts like that? IF the RIPA makes Phorm illegal, that's just coincidental good luck, and it doesn't make RIPA a good thing. Phorm scheme is dangerous and the fact that it breaks RIPA is only a tool that can and must be used (yes, I do have shameless situationist tendancies). But it also breaks a number of other things, like the trust between ISPs and customers, the right to privacy (which exists independently of RIPA) and network safety. The present story just further proves that the UK is indeed a police state now, and if noones stands against this kind of things while it's still possible, it will soon be very comparable to the USSR under Staline's reign.The UK and the US are already too far down this road, as proven by the fact that opposing to violation of one's privacy is considered as a suspect behaviour /per se/. Shut up now and next thing you'll know will be "them" coming for you.

Pierre
Flame

(untitled)

"To compare the freedoms that you take so much for granted to the living conditions of those who live in *real* police states is risible to the point of being offensive."

I am not from the UK, though I've been visiting ol'Blighty a couple of times. It IS turning into a *very real* police state. A laughable, Marx Bros-loke police state where the government spies on citizens then gives details away on CDs and/or laptops, but not less dangerous than serious, well organised ones.

See http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-559597

The kind of procedure used here is EXACTLY at the same level as following your car day and night for 2 weeks waiting for you to drive a bit to fast, park slightly improperly, use horn in town or whatever.

Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich?

Pierre
Flame

Theft really?

Enough with this lame argument. Artists and songwriters were starving and are still starving to allow parasitic major labels to do huge profits. We're in an era in which physical distribution is not difficult nor expensive, not to mention "virtual" distribution. Major labels have build their fortune on their monopole on physical distribution, now they realize that it's slipping out of their hands. As they failed to come up with viable alternatives and tried to make even more money out of that (they do distribute "virtual" music, but they charge the same to the customer -who has to pay the bandwith and the physical support on top, and gets a crippled file- and they pay the artists even less). So yes, people end up "stealing" music. But the majors had it coming, indeed.

Now they're trying to hide their greedy parasitic behaviour by using the "cloud" of pirates as scapegoats. Pay artists and songwriters correctly, and charge a price reflecting your costs to the customers, and the piracy "problem" will vanish by itself. The more they insist in their stupid ways, the more people will get used to "steal" music, and the less likely we are to end up with a sane distribution scheme.

And please no objections like "we're charging a lot because we're taking risks as we support new talents". The majors stopped doing that ages ago. Small "indy" labels do that. And most of the time they sell music cheaper, even though their costs are higher. The fact is, they're doing their job, unlike majors for which music is nothing more than a a product they trade to finance new villas and expensive cars. It is interesting to note that the majors do their best to crush these labels, too. Support independant labels, and brick the RIAA.

Apple MacBook Air Early 2008

Pierre

ultra-portable????????

To sum up the review, the Air has the same "useful" dimensions as a normal laptop, with the processing power of an ultra-portable (I don't care about how thin it is, I'd have to get a large bag to fit it in, so no ultra-portability). It also has the price tag of an ultra-portable+a normal laptop. With barely any connectivity and no optical drive. So, functionnally-speaking, it's nothing else than a huge shiny PDA. With one major backdraw: huge accessories (as compared to PDA accessories).

Target maket: PDA users who want to have a large keyboard. And who have piles of unused money. And a large bag. Fool - money...

The only reason why it will sell is that it's a "must-have" for design lovers. I used to think that my saying that "Macs are for people who don't really need a computer" was a bit exaggerated. It is not anymore. How long before Apple actually stop selling electronics and focus on their real business: design sculptures?

Phone insurance firm reveals Sharia rules policy

Pierre

In god we trust

"The US is clearly a secular state; the "In God We Trust" motto, is purely an issue of heritage."

Sure. And using the Qran as a reference for legislation in "islamic" countries is just an issue of heritage.

A state is characterised by it's government (including Gov agencies), judiciary, legislative powers, and currency. All of them areexhibit this "in god we trust" on every occasion. So, sure, when it's you it's secular and OK, but when it's someone else with a different religion, it's nasty and anti-democratic. How typically American.

Pierre
Coat

Alcohol and porcine species

Companies aimed at producing alcohol-imbibated pigs? Does the pub facing your local police station qualify?

Pierre
Boffin

Christian countries

US (In God We Trust plastered all around, especially on money and gov agencies), UK (Queenie's head of Church and State) and therefore Canada (Queenie's head of that too, officially), Greece (no separation between church and state), Vatican of course, and I'm probably missing a few.

IBM smacks rivals with 5.0GHz Power6 beast

Pierre
Boffin

Water cooling and freedom of speech

Water cooling is much more efficient than air cooling, this is a fact and has been demonstrated here and in many other places It is also much more simple from a general point of view, as air cooling implies the need to clean (filter), move and chill enormous volumes of air. It adds overall complexity as the very local "simplification" in rack design implies open system, which need to be placed in "white rooms" to avoid contamination by airborne particles. The overall structural cost is necessarily much higher than for a closed water circuit.

Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't develop and favor non-heating (and power-saving) chips. But even those could benefit from well-thought water cooling. I'm especially thinking about desktops and laptops operating in non-controlled atmosphere (servers too, but who is stupid enough to keep their servers outside a white room? Oh.... sorry), all this dust accumulating everywhere is a real problem. Watts and water DO mix much better than dust and air-cooling. There is no reason why a well-designed water-cooling system would be a problem. The issue is "macro-technical", and quite easy to fix (besides, polish plumbers come cheap these days). "Fire and powder don't mix", still the "mixture" is widely used, from fireworks to space rocket propulsion. In the lab, we're happily mixing pressurized gasses, water, heavy watts,very delicate electronics, very toxic compounds and radioactive isotopes, all that in a place that would make a bachelor's kitchen look tidy. All clear, sir. No safety incident or leak reported in the past few years. We did have problems though: the computer monitoring the whole shebang froze in the middle of an important experiment because the air-cooled processor over-heated (dust accumulation, in spite of the filter). And we had to change the air-cooled power supply a couple of times (dust accumulation, in spite of the filter). Gimme water cooling please.

Besides, for applications that DO need heavy single-threaded processing power (yes, there are such things. My heavier computational needs are not easily split into parallel processes -but basic science might well be an exception), faster single-thread chips are a great thing. And air-cooling them would be an astronomical waste of energy.

To sum up my thoughts, low-power chips are the best, when they do the trick. But water-cooling them would still be even better. Reducing the issue to "water and electricity don't mix" is a silly attempt at mixing basic "home safety" advice with highly technical issues.

As for the freedom of speech, and me mentionning the US: freedom of speech is respected there indeed -till you start talking or writing about Al Quaeda or about filesharing or about kicking your prof's butt, even if you don't disclose the results of you elucubrations. Which is the kind of restriction that define the LACK of speech freedom (see the last few court decision about overall harmless dudes emailing bad poetry about Bin Laden, or the kid grounded for an undisclosed phantasmatic "hit list".) I could have mentionned the UK too. Goth teenage girls are really threatening these days! As for France, mother of the "Declaration des Droits de l'Homme", I guess that holding a sign reading "Niko, salaud, le peuple aura ta peau" whould lead you directly behind the bars, with the associated beating. Poor, poor western world.

Geek icon just because.

Pierre

Hi Valdis

The use of air for cooling is the admission of lack of technical skills. It is the most power-hungry and inefficient solution around. It is also much more complex than water cooling, and not safe at all (you need to filter and cool humongous volumes, and the fans are very prone to failure).

"I was born in a country and live in a country where free speech is respected." I believe you never ever went to the glorious US of A then.

Pierre

I was in love

Before y'all mentionned Vista.

I might still get one of these shiny racks. That's on my todo list. Just before "buy a Vista-certified box for personal use" (they come at about the same price anyway).

IBM offers 4,000 frequent flyer miles per core to abandon HP

Pierre
Flame

mac flame war

How the hell did you guys managed to turn this into a "mac-nomac" flame war? You're damn good! (especially given the "glorious" benchmark performances of macs these days. Not that I am biased, of course.)

BTW, Intel sux moose balls, yay AMD. Vista wouldn't run even if chased by a grizzly bear. Rumor has it that Leopard will legally have to be renamed "Apple OSsuX" because any other name would be deceptive. Jobs and Ballmer are so gay that they have been spotted making out together by a GoogleStreet reporter. Phorm will save the world.

FLAME ON! YAY!

Spam filtering services throttle Gmail to fight spammers

Pierre

Funny joke

is number one. But what about language problems? Or different kind of humor?

As for me, I only use a bayesian engine, no prob. It trashes 200+ messages a day, never had a false positive, and only around 1 false negative a month.

There is no way to prevent spam from being sent by pre-emptive filtering or multiplication of lame tests, as the spammers don't use web interfaces anyway. It would only annoy legit users.

Suppress free e-mail? Every single site asks for a valid e-mail nowadays, free spam holes are vital then. Plus, being bound to you ISP provided account is NOT a good idea for obvious reasons. Employer-provided email account is slightly less annoying but can still bid a bad idea.

As for the fee (or credit card authentication), well, great. What if you don't have a credit card (not even mentionning 3rd world)? What if spammers use their database of stolen credit card details? (stolen when, you know, legit users provided them!). Maybe GMail should ask for your passport number, check the Gov's database, thend send you a confirmation request by snail mail. Of course, this would only allow "passported" US citizens to have an email account, but they are the only persons in the world that really matter anyway, right?. And this WILL cut on the spam.

Max Mosley loses battle to get sex video off web

Pierre
Thumb Up

Precedent set

Now the "sorry but it has entered the public domain to the extent that there is, in practical terms, no longer anything which the law can protect." line can be used to dismiss all cases brought up by music majors surely?

Verari spins ultra-dense networked storage blade

Pierre
Coat

Do they come in red?

Mine's the one with the bucking horse on the back.

Microsoft preaches togetherness for online security

Pierre
Gates Horns

Typical

So after firing the lifeguard they realise that they can't swim. Sooooo typical.

Is Europe's war on Islamist terror running out of terrorists?

Pierre

Half of you

will feed next year's statistics. I'm talking about the non-believers who posted comments minimizing the threat, therefore encouraging muslim nutcase to "do better" while discouraging law-abidding Daily Mail readers to beat the crap out of their tanned neighbours (a tanned complexion indicates terrorist inclinations nowadays -10 years ago, it was red hair and nasal accent, the times they are a-changing)...

Y'all are guilty of expressing ideas that might lead to independant thinking, which in turn might lead to scepticism and might encourage disrespect towards the authorities and at some point in the future might lead to increased free speach, which is the ground on which terrorism blooms, as we all know. So you're terrorists. So to G-bay you go, you filthy enemy combattants!

Thailand cracks down on cut-price castrations

Pierre
Flame

@ thought patterns and brain structures

I call bullshit. What are you trying to prove? That people who think are the "opposite" gender as their nads say, think that they are the opposite gender as their nads say? Why the heck do you need brain activity mapping (I guess that it's what you need by "brain structure") or thought patterning to prove that? Could you also prove that male people who think they are male, think they are male? Or that female people who think they are female, think that they are female? I think I own a computer, let's map my brain activity patterns and analyse my thought patterns to know if I think I own a computer!

People can do whatever they want with their lives, none of my business, but please stop the pseudo-scientific "proofs", they're not helping you. You are allowed to live the life you want, but this whole pseudo-science thing is getting old. You call medical condition? So do the neo-fascists, who also consider that delinquence is a medical condition that can be detected in early infancy, or that homosexuality is a medical condition, or whatever. All you'll get will be "reeducation" camps.

How is "trangenderism" different from the girls who get breast implants, or liposuccion, because they "feel better" that way? How is it different, in the mental process, from the dork next door who spend ages on body-building gear and eats only high-protein stuff?

I know, y'all are poor ill-understood victims of an horrid tragedy and should be pitied a lot. Ho wait, not all of you are like that. You, personally should probably chill a bit and read "brain structure" and "thought patterns" very cautiously. Science is about examining the right problem with the appropriate tools. The "studies" you're refering to boil down to examine whether male people behaving like women behave like women, and if female people behaving like men behave like men. How informative! No really acceptable scientific proof though.

Only Ubuntu left standing, as Flash vuln fells Vista in Pwn2Own hacking contest

Pierre
Happy

@Ken Hagan (bombproof)

Right-o. All 3 OSes are now quite secure, which does not mean that they can sit outside a tightly controlled local network. Good to see that MS finally caught up on the security ground (their counter-measures can be bypassed, but it's still a significant improvement). Bad news for Apple, but it's a consequence-less waking call, I'm sure they can harden the bloody thing. Linux guys shouldn't sleep on that one, sure, but that's not the way "they" (neutral-style distanciation) usually behave.

Let's all ditch our PC-like machines and switch to VMS, VX teams are just waiting for "new" challenges!

Pierre
Flame

@Ken Hagan

"A process in Windows may have fewer privileges than the launching user, but not more."

That's surely why, in the example I mentioned, an app lauched by an unprivileged user was able to keep running with unlimited privilege in every user's session, including the admin account. I must have been fooled by my misconceptions. I must have IMAGINED that these 20 windows per second were spawning, surely.

"(Windows has no setuid bit, for example." setuid... right no good. Not allowed on my systems (and should be considered as deprecated). But to be honest, when one chooses to install an app with the "setuid" bit, one should be prepared to face problems, And do do so you MUST be admin ( and a stupid admin, if I can give my opinion).

"Firstly, WAY too many lusers "run as Admin" on Windows"

True. That's because WAY too many Ladmins allows them to.

"Secondly, once a regular account has been compromised, it MAY (and I'm no expert in these matters) be relatively straightforward to elevate that compromise to the whole system using some local vulnerability"

Clearly you're not expert in these matters. Once a luser account has been compromised under Windoze, it is indeed quite easy to compromise the whole system (due to the very lame privilege separation in Win, this was what I was saying in my previous comments, you M$ fanbois can still read, right?). This is "almost" impossible on a *NIX system (the "almost" being here thanks to the 0.00001% stupid *NIX admins who give sudo permissions away).

And still. An app's privileges are not dependent on the originating user's permissions under Windows. Definitely not. And that's the problem. Do you need yet another example? A user with "limited admin privilege" can be allowed to install an application, but still be unable to mess with the system's core. Still, if the installation process involves the creation of Desktop shortcuts, every account on the system will end up with the shortcut on the desktop. That's nothing, as compared to the case I described upper in this thread. But it further proves that privilege separation is lame in Windows.

Pierre
Pirate

WHY you can hack my boxes

My boxes are sooo asking to be pwned. But, mind you, I'd better have my shiney computers hacked than missing that:

http://www.taintedink.com/flash.htm

(warning: Flash (or similar) security risk has to be installed to view the things). I do like the cat. And yes, this should definitely go on a newsgroup and not here, but thanks to my sick humor I have to many enemies on that medium :-D

Idees

Pierre
Heart

@John Larrigan and David (and John "old timer" Larrigan)

Should have worked allright. If the "run as" box vever goes out of focus. Lame that you have to do that even when you are logged in as root, huh?

And the major concern, for me, wasn't not to be allowed to suppress the file (just a minor annoyance), but the fact that an app launched by an unprivileged user could go mad on EVERY user account. And even after a shutdown. I believe that it's because the privilege of a process in Win is given by the app itself, not by the rights of the user who launches it. Which is very bad. The only control is what the interface allows you to ask the app for, but if you find a way to feed an unlawfull command to the application, there's no way to stop it.

Ho, and yes, macs are annoying, too. I hate it when the computer prevents me from actually using it. (but MS seems to be catching up on this ground, as by default in Vista you have to click, on average, on 34.76 "yes" or "OK" boxes before the fsking thing actually does what you asked.) There are also a couple of things that I don't like about my Linux distro, but that's confidential.

Which leads me to John's comment... I'm not using Ubuntu. I despise this lame sub-Debian too much. Ubuntu has ONE quality: it is so "F(r)iend(l)ish" that it can be a good half-step in the migration from Windows to Linux. I would probably run Slackware if I was an old-timer (and if I liked to meet unexpected dependancy problems), but I like shiney things too much...Debian it is then. The HUGE collection of precompiled binaries also helped. I am not patient enough to recompile all the stuff (Gentoo, anyone?) and when I need specific compile-time options, well, I grab the code. I tried Ubuntu (just to know, never even bothered to install it), most of major Red Hat derivatives, SuSe, Slack, OS/2 (don't laugh), both major free BSDs, various Wins, Apple, BlueBottle (you know, written in Oberon -this one was a good laugh, try it if you can!), and even the HURD for a few weeks. Debian is just what floats my boat best so far (just had to take care not to install all the graphic bloatware that it will install if you say you want a "desktop environment -yes, the desktop is Gnome by default. Kills me. Why the heck? AARRRHH. I said it, I feel better now). Didn't try Gentoo though. Maybe I'm missing something here.

ANYway, Peach and Loze, Make FAP not warez, and all that stuff.

and, Debian soooo totally, mean, rulez.

Pierre

@ Matty (Tough Buntu)

"I always thought it was the African word meaning "I can't use a real Linux distro"."

Wrong. Ubuntu is an African word meaning "Too lazy to install Debian". Same meaning for "Red Hat" (and derivatives), "Suse", etc ... "Debian", in turn, means "More shiney than Slackware". And Slackware mean "I'm too old to use Ubuntu".

Pierre
Gates Horns

@ David

You still fail to understand. As I said, every window was a separate process (and i have no idea on which app triggered the *.exe in the first place. It was maybe even not running anymore). Killing one wouldn't have be more usefull that just closing the window in the graphical environment (I tried, mind you, using the task manager). Your solution wouldn't have worked at all as they would have still been spawning "in the background", crashing the machine in ~10 sec. Not to mention that the DOS-like console couldn't have been opened anyway, as I wouldn't have been able to keep the focus long enough to open it (even scrolling down a window was a real pain). Don't try to justify Windows' lame management of separate users or process privilege, and lack of decent administration tools.

There was no easy solution given these flaws, unlike under any *NIX-like OS. Right I could have saved 1/2 hr by using an external booting medium to remove the *.exe file, but I would have had to uninstall the apps anyway, so I would have had to spend this time no matter what, even if later.

The fact is that this happened because the OS is badly thought. And it puts in light a major (major, like MAJOR) flaw in the system. This time, no consequences but if the rogue app hadn't been an utterly harmless legit one, it could have been very bad.

Pierre

@David

Not a driver problem. It was a problem with the acquisition app that came with it. And try to gain focus long enough to type anything while the crazy box is opening 20 windows a second. Good luck. As for the system restore and all that, I had no idea about when the thing was installed.

As for the full-screen terminal, I always thought it was just hiding the (still running) graphic server? Never checked though. But in that case, it wouldn't have helped, as in less than 10 secs the machine would have been unusable anyway.

BTW, I seem to remember that when you kill it a couple of times in a row, KDM (or GDM or whatever) shuts down. Not sure though, as startx is good enough for me.

And I agree that it wasn't a huge problem, more like an irritating thing (On a Friday afternoon!). Anyway there's something wrong if this is allowed to happen. Cross-session. On the Admin account too.

Pierre

@ David Webb

~1/2 h to reboot the computer from the luser's session (finally had to unplug it as even the logical shutdown button didn't respond). ~1/2 to login, see that my admin account is affected, identify the problem and find out I can't remove it then presumably ~1/2h to find the bloody DVD (either Vista or Knoppix), reboot the computer and remove the stuff -if I am allowed to, that is. How can that be made "in seconds"?

Under Linux, (even if the problem couldn't probably happen at all, but let's assume it did anyway) I would have shut the X server down, logged in as root in a console, found and fixed the problem. 1/4 hr at most, no need to even log the luser off. I could probably even have started an X session and fixed the problem from there if I had wanted to, whithout being bothered by the rogue prog.

And this was caused by a "legit" piece of crappy software that was only doing its job, just "a bit too well" because the luser probably just forgot to install it in "2000/XP compat" mode. Imagine what a really agressive malware based on the same loophole could do.

Anyway, the very fact that this happened in the first place is the real problem. Lame user separation, lame privilege separation, lame admin tools by default.

That's why whatever buggy plugin you install, the penguin will almost always be harder to totally pwn than the MS. The holes in Flash is Adobe's fault. The fact that the OS lets these be a gaping security problem is the OS's fault.

Pierre
Unhappy

@ confused RW

That's the price of "user-friendlyness" combined with no proper privilege separation, I guess. I recently saw a malware-like app running on a (fully patched) Vista machine, which kept opening windows containing a 640x480 image as fast as the available memory and processor time allowed it to (roughly 20 windows per second when the system was idle), each one being a single instance of the originatin program (no "kill app" trick allowed). Stupid luser had installed a (seemingly legit) webcam-monitoring app designed for W2K (work-related, mind you. The controller for a microscope-compatible CMOS captor with an USB interface). Of course, as you can imagine, this crashed the system once ~300 frames were open (no matter how fast you can click -and he tried :-D- you cant close 20 windows per second). The system wasn't even able to shut down, as the spawning windows were eating all the CPU power and RAM. Now how come the system gave priority to such processes over the system-critical processes? How come that loging in the machine with another account (my own admin account) didn't help? All along the problem-fixing process, I had to close groups of windows before they reached the critical machine-crashing number... even if the "malicious" process was started under his (relatively low privileged) account. As Super Mighty Admin, I couldn't even remove the responsible *.exe file (that I identified quite fast, while still closing grouped windows every 5 seconds roughly). Because, as Vista told me, "you need authorization" to remove the file.

I'm the bloody admin, dammit!

Had to remove every user-installed app, one by one (while still right-clicking- group closing every 5 seconds or so, remember?) before reaching the guilty one (how could I guess, as it was the only work-related one?). Not bad as I removed a few things that had clearly nothing to do with work, but still. Spend a few painful hours on an issue that would have been fixed on a matter of seconds under Linux (or, more likely, an issue that would never have existed at all under Linux)

I'll be investigating the loophole in my spare time next week, as if it can be reproduced, I might get me a free laptop + 5000$ next year...

Pierre
Flame

@AC (oh dear oh dear)

I don't want to have anything to do with MacTards BUT I must recognise that Apple machines are shiney, generally well-designed (ergonomically-speaking. My PC keyboard sucks in comparison, I'm jealous of MacBook power adapter design -not to mention the adaptable "lenghtener". I know, length doesn't matter, but still). As for Safary being "the buggiest browser on the market", sounds like someone never used IE. And to be honest I wouldn't trust a browser which can also move my files around, or a file manager which can access the intarwub (Konqueror, anyone?). My laptop is a cheap "made in China" piece of crap (the pre-installed Vista isn't even able to cope with the keyboard correctly, and the wiring in the innards is so weird I spent ages mapping the ports correctly under Linux -ages being 1 or 2 hours, but still). I wouldn't describe Apple hardware as "low quality". because (let's be honest and dump the balanced point of view), if it was crap, the system wouldn't be able to run for more than 1 hr given how the software is working. Sure, MacBook's case gets awfully hot (company policy is that noisy things are bad, I guess. They prolly ditched the fan and crammed cooling elves in the box) but I wouldn't for sure challenge MY hardware with such loads as Apple hardware has to handle because of the "shiney" software. But I wouldn't run my full-fledged (read crippled) preinstalled Vista Premium on it either...

A real pain in the neck is the non-removable battery. Sure, Apple's batteries are good (my lame 6-cells battery wouldn't last more than 1 year if I kept it in the laptop), but the fact is that I mainly keep the battery OUT, working with the fsking POS plugged in the wall, whenever possible. This way my battery is always available when I really need it. And it will be, for ages, I bet. Almost 2 years already, and I still have 2 to 3 hrs of spare power when I need it (Same as when I bought it. Told you it is a lame battery).

Flame Apple for what they do wrong (Why do they tell everyone it's secure by default? Why can't I easily downgrade my privilege? Why, when I need to debug something, can't I, even if I've got enough privilege to compromise the machine anyway? Why the hell did they remove most usefull feats from the X11 server? Why the one-button mouse? Why is the touchpad config so lame? Why is there no easily-reached console mode anymore? Why is it so expensive? Why is it that when you're working on an Apple machine in an open space, random people feel free to disturb you with annoying small-talk on the ground that they own a mac themselves? ;-) ).

Me, with a Mac? Guess Satan will be skiing before. But still, you have to flame people for what they do wrong, not randomly. Wait, is your automatic flamethrower controller running on Vista, by any chance?

Pierre
Jobs Horns

@ toxic monkey

"I doubt equal time was spent on the Linux hack as it's much more sexy to hit the big guys" yeah sure. Given the very low number of Linux-based middle-sized server with tons of juicey info on them, as compared to the humongous number of win-based servers (not to mention apple-based servers. Bwahahahaha), the results clearly reflect a tendency to hit the big guys first. Or not?

I know that we're talking about desktop versions here, but the OS is the same. If it was about "gig guys", the Linux one would have been pwned on the first day (only OS vulns allowed). "I doubt equal time was spent on the Linux hack as it's much more sexy to hit the big guys". May I laugh again? Plus, the Vista hacker reportedly spent 4 hrs going back and forth across the Vista and Ubuntu machines, the Vista one just proved to be easier to hack into.

No "it's Adobe fault" either. The penguin had flash installed too. Just a bit more safely.

Now, you all M$ fanbois are right: the fact that you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not after you ;)

At least we must recognise one thing: most of you KNOW that your OS (and the way it allows third-party components to take control) is vulnerable, so MOST of you are careful. The problem is with the unwashed masses being sold an unsecure OS while being told they have nothing to fear ("beware, as the pre-installed software is a malware magnet" is nowhere near a good selling line). Botnets take advantage of that. But be patient: if S. Jobs minions fail to awaken in time, given the growing market share of the elves-powered shiney machines, Mac botnets might well replace Win-botnets in the infamous pantheon of major annoyances (rootkitted Linux servers already got their share, thank you.). When was the last time you met a Mac user understanding the need for low-privilege user accounts?

Pierre
Linux

Debian laptop in DMZ

(fanboi)

Now I feel allowed to let my Debian laptop sit in the DMZ indefinitely, with no security at all (I disabled all my secure settings, as, you know, I don't need them: it's unhackable anyway)

(/fanboi)

If you wish to give it a try, my IP is 127.0.0.1

Pierre
Thumb Up

... African word meaning "tougher than you"...

And the best part is that it was an out-of-the box unhardened desktop version of a sub-Debian for lazy people. I can hear the crow-eating comment coming.

No real surprise though. The really good laugh was the Fall of the Mighty Apple. The fanbois might stop saying stupid things like "Macs are the most secure things ever". Or "I'd be happy to let my mac outside a firewall without protection", for that matter. Seriously, even if most Linux boxes are more secure by design than macs, I never heard a single penguin-lover say that his/her machine doesn't need protection. (same stands for BSD). It was about time for apple-eaters to wake up.

Japanese boffins could save UK from economic doom

Pierre
Stop

Stop sensationalism

ready for human in 10 years, yeah right, shurely, that's not as if siRNAs by themselves had secondary effects, right? Not as if uncontrolable fibroblast proliferation (and subsequent collagen accumulation) had deeper origins, like the decreasing proliferation capacity of hepatocytes. Not as if rodents and humans had different metabolisms. Not as if the study didn't involve any actual cause of human liver disease. Not as if....

OK. There MIGHT be something there. But my money is on the "100 years before efficient human therapy" hypothesis, not 10 years. US scientists rank first in my personal pantheon of bullshitters-for-moneyz (and media attention) [I was very impressed by the claim "we can cure cystic fibrosis by gene therapy", rapidly followed by the death of a young boy and the slow death of the gene therapy approach), but Japan is apparently catching up. Yay Japan!

Forgive the over-enthusiastic comment, it's almost spring, here in .ca

Official: OOXML approved as international standard

Pierre
Gates Horns

Can't help but wonder

@ the few MS fanbois: As MS doesn't implement "their" standard actually, and are not willing to even try, we can assume that it's only some form of marketting-related show-off. To impress govs and large corps, maybe. Could this be related to the fact that more and more govs and governemental agencies are moving towards OOo (or similar)?. Is that fear that I smell???

Mobile phones global health menace, says top brain surgeon

Pierre
Thumb Down

sub-Wikipedia-grade research

Mouarf. Read the POS. And he said he submitted it to a scientific journal? It's not even close to a correct draft (not to mention that because it's have been made available beforehand, there's no chance that it will be published. Ever.). The abstract is actually longer than the References section (and it's supposed to be a review!). Badly structured, no real argument but lots of "proofs by analogy" and authoritative sentences hammered again and again. I doubt this was actually written by anyone used to writing or reading scientific papers (or as a "bad example" case for teaching purpose). Someone is just trying to pass bullshit by shaping it the way they think a scientific review article looks like. Fail.

Get your German interior minister's fingerprint here

Pierre
Thumb Up

Kroa

Eat this crow, fingerprint-lovers. How long before the random yoof is able to fake your fingerprints from your RFID-powered ID card? All it takes is a cheap RFID reader and a way to issue rubber-prints. This ID card scheme is really a mad-bomber wet dream. So long for the "I've nothing to hide" sheeps.

Boffins battle over oldest European woman

Pierre
Black Helicopters

More advanced than Europe" indeed

And it was not just 200 million years ago. Egypt anyone? True, they needed alien support to build the pyramids. But doesn't that prove that they had discovered a way to contact our intergalactical overlords? Maybe they were at the time more advanced than we are now... now where is that CoS icon?

History is a never-ending circle: how do you think Terminal 5 was build? clearly with extensive help from super-intelligent alien beings, not really "au fait" with earthy contingencies, like gravity or our lame prehistoric electronics.

This is not a copter, this is an advanced extra-galactic vessel. Coming for your fingerprints.

Transgender man prepares to give birth

Pierre
Coat

@ kain preacher

Indeed "Stopthepropaganda is troll", but there's nothing like the sweet sell of burning fur. And this thread lacked a good old flamewar anyway. Mine's the one with the gas tank and odd tube attached.

Pierre
Flame

@ stopthepropaganda

To express things more politely than I'd wish to, maybe you should consider where your"freedom" comes from. If you're too young to remember by yourself, it comes from France, more precisely from the "Siècle des Lumières". It comes from the idea that freedom is free indeed, and that this idea should be spread as widely as possible.

All other views come from sordid economico-political interests, and the fact that the infamous "freedom is not free" sentence appears on a memorial monument (Corea war memorial if I can remember) along the mall in DC is a shame for the US. The essence of freedom is to be free indeed, no political or oil-chasing purpose should be allowed to interfere with that. No inefficient-by-design terrorist chase scheme should interfere with that. No religious belief should interfere with that either. Freedom IS free, and anything that is not free shouldn't be mistaken for freedom. Remember your own history. Remember what this huge statue in NY was supposed to mean. Just remember.

Pierre
Flame

@ Freedom is not free freak

Freedom is not free is not a truism. It's the most cynical, ill-advised, dictature-justifying argument ever issued. That's the most unacceptable statement ever. It basically means "anyone can do anything provided they think it's right AND they are powerfull enough to get away with it". It means "let's kill people in the name of economical reason hidden behind vague "liberty" bullshit". It means "we can do whatever we want to you, it's for your own good".

Liberty IS free. That's why the US aren't anywhere near liberty, never were, and (please prove me wrong) never will be.

Red Hat cheerleading purges Q4 profits

Pierre
Coat

What about...

Bluebottle? The Oberon community wants to know!

(This way, even if it's not the first comment, it'll still be the first utterly stupid comment. And yes, if you ask, it's been a hard day)

OpenOffice update released

Pierre
Coat

Good news/bad news

The PDF import/export was one of the major reasons why I stick to TEX-based solutions (or lout on low-ressource machines) for serious things. Or Scribus when dealing with unusual formats involving lots of high-res images(2x1 posters anyone?). Now I'll hopefully be able to produce high-quality documents AND send publishers and collaborators "source" files that they can read and comment, no matter how clueless they are. That's the "good news" part.

Hope they didn't "fill the gap" with MS too much though. If I wanted a falsely-friendly-but-awfully-rigid-and-crippled software suit, I'd get a few MS licences, thank you very much.

BTW, can't wait to see if they upgraded the plotting capabilities of oocalc. C'mon guys, even gnumeric is much better (but still sux moose balls)! Stop trying to compare with MS and go for the real challenges! It would be very good to have a number-crunching app with good plotting capabilities. I do like MatLab, Octave and SciLab, but I also like to be in control of every step sometimes, controlling the data by eye (I'm a matrix-reader). BTW, and as I mentioned Octave and the like, enhanced scripting support wouldn't hurt either.

Wutdya say? It's not the right place for OOo feature requests? Soooooo sorry, can you do me a favor and hand me my coat please? Yes, the stained one that reads "No-life boffin" on the back. Thx.

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