@Jess

Not really - if the (probably foreign) web site fails to turn up to defend itself (which really it should not have to outside of its country or registration) then they get the default judgement in their favour.

Basically if you want to oppose any of their stupidity you will need DEEP pockets, a good way of keeping any small company's innovation out of their profit plans...

Indeed, but then Virgin probably accepted that or were to dumb to see what would happen.

Outsource your service, lose control and respect. And not just from the end customer...

Some USB links support SMART data (oddly enough a cheap no-name drive from a local computer shop) but yes, its a pain that generally external drives don't report the disk's health as best they could.

@Eeeeh...

Simplez...

You (as in Google, etc) design a system where all collected data is automatically deleted after, say, 6 months UNLESS someone (aka the associated ID, etc) repeatedly agrees to the retention.

If you stop agreeing, change identity, or die, etc, then after a short time your history is removed apart from stuff you explicitly handed to trusted friends.

"t seems that the Belle update will *require* a Windows PC"

That alone is a sad indication of a system that is so screwed they can't implement a proper update.

Really, how much do you need to back up, and why can't it do that over the air then initiate the full reset/update/restore.

A massive FAIL and sadly not Nokia's first. How the mighty (and good phone producers) have fallen...

Just checked it - slow by 55 seconds. A mechanical watch is better than that!

I could rant about the sluggish user interface, crashing friendstream app, etc..., but I think I'll take my dried frog pills and lie down now.

@frymaster

You are seriously short sighted!

"As to the ARM stuff, in the abstract this is annoying. But in reality, I can't see the presence or absence of the ability to load linux onto win8 phones and tablets affecting me one way or the other."

What happens when nice laptops come out with win8 and long battery life from an ARM processor? Locked to MS-only and Linux must make do with the old Intel stuff.

Furthermore, the MS requirement only *allow* non-MS signed x86 booting, they don't *require* it, and one can imagine that secretly they will pressure OEMs to not support it.

It is high time that the EU or whatnot mandated all computer devices have a free way to disable secure boot should the user want to try another OS, or use a Linux-based recovery CD or similar. Most don't care, but it will eventually strangle any sense of freedom in computing in 5-10 years time.

@Computers vs Humans

Rainbow tables only 'work' if you have access to the hash on the target system. If you are having to attack it as a normal user then anything that puts the mean-time-to breach at a few attempts per second (or whatever limit is applied on multiple failures) to hundreds of years is fine.

The XKCD argument was based on that premise.

If they have full access to the target to get the hashes, they probably have that system owned. They also can reverse your password, but if you have easy phrases that differ, no advantage to other site.

What is needed is:

A) Easy but strong choices.

B) Several of them so little shared to compromise vis honeypot sites.

C) Means of dealing with infested PCs that allow a local attack using the just-gathered information for a given site.

I think (C) is the hardest to deal with following XKCD-like education.

"Why on earth do people whine about having to reboot once a frigging week (at most)?"

No, the whine is that it rebooted WITHOUT his permission or notification.

After all of the debates and pros and cons of OS, my vote always goes for Linux because *I* can decide what it can and can't do, even if that choice is dumb, it is still *my* choice.

@The Jase

There are two issues here: the first is what might explain such a generator. That could run for years...

The second is much simpler, Andrea Rossi claims to have built such a machine, so it should be simple to set up a controlled experiment to establish if it produces more power than is input, and for sufficient time to not be explained by internal chemical means.

If so, then the first issue merits more serious work.

@Forget Investment...

Considering the millions-billions that governments spunk on useless projects (think UK failed ID cards) I think it is worth the odd few £100k to conclusively prove or disprove such schemes. It would provide a public display of the scientific method which one might hope would make them more critical of marketing claims, and might just occasionally turn up a fabulous new discovery.

A lot of 'science' suffers from the same human failing of dogmatic belief that religion has, that a new idea must be wrong because its not fitting to established theory. Often that is true, but every so often we get something major that initially is dismissed as crank theory (e.g plants having sexuality, relativity vs Newtonian mechanics, quantum vs classical physics, maybe something new with the pro-ported FTL neutrinos...).

So lets support this prize and see if we can get proof one way or another.

Crap approach

From this & TonyHoyle's report, I can't see any point in buying one. If I wanted something locked-down then there is Apple, at least with a neat & tidy garden to be locked in.

But what is the point in locking one of these? Do Asus think they can get a cut of money from stuff sold for the platform? I doubt it, though please politely explain to me if this is wrong.

If I was in the market for a tablet, my first thought would be as a pretty plaything, in which case Apple are fine. If I wanted to make use of it more seriously, I would expect standard cables and USB support, along with the freedom to load what *I* want on it, just like a real computer but in a small form-factor.

So why should I even consider Asus?

@Oninoshiko

Most folk use DHCP so get the DNS from the router, usually passed-through from their ISP.

But in most cases you can manually set the DNS address in the router to use an alternative (OpenDNS etc) which is also what allows for much mischief if someone gets your router's login.

Hence my original point, your PCs, etc, should be secured as if it is exposed directly to the world, *AND* your router should be secured again an "inside job" where someone gets on your LAN. It could be this PIN weakness, but equally could be an infected PC.

@Will Godfrey

If this was log-in directly to your PC/account, then yes it would be a major fail of Windows95 proportions.

But in reality, the weakness is not as bad as that as all it gives them is access to your LAN and you should *NEVER* assume your LAN is a completely safe place.

OK, you probably have more lax firewall rules for 192.168.1.* or whatever, and they could be using your IP address for nefarious purposes, maybe even sending pr0n to your networked printer for the lutz.

But your own PC should be secured as if it is facing the wild wibbly west in any case, and all of your critical transactions done over https/ssh/etc. What I would be more worried about was users not changing the router's default password so they could change the DNS to a poisoned one...

My 2p

@HMB

"a small minority bashing it"

Maybe, just maybe, they know more about radio systems than you do.

@Richard 12

Exactly. And looking at how crap and unreliable most consumer electronics is (e.g. my HTC 'smart' phone) how long until we get an emergency and find that a number of devices refuse to clear the band due to faulty design and/or being patched to ignore the database because some idiot found it did not work as they hoped due to them actually being in an area where the frequencies we being used by the primary user.

The whole point of band planning should be to keep devices of similar function and/or importance grouped and segregated so important stuff keeps working even if stuff is not 100% as specified.

Just look at how BT pissed over the amateur radio SW band with their powerline modems and ofcom did bugger all. How long until we get a flood of similarly technically illegal devices that simply won't be recalled for political or financial reasons, so the legitimate users get stuffed? (e.g. ones that don't reliably honour the position & database query requirement).

"would you keep coming back to the same place?"

If the filming was cheap...

@bazza

There are few sat phones in use, or needed, in most populated areas. Compared to peppering the urban areas and roads with GPS-interfering ground stations it is a negligible issue.

@seacook

Not as simple as "Additional filtering would add a few bucks to the cost of a receiver". You forget to consider the size impact for portable devices and the increase in system noise due to the filter's loss (which gets bigger as you make it narrower and 'smaller' for a given material choice) wich impacts antenna requirements and/or the ability to work in poor reception conditions (indoors, under forest canopy, etc).

Further more you also neglect the power consumption implications of higher overload margin LNAs, mixers, and low phase noise local oscillators (as even a very good pre-LNA filter won't stop everything). Again, that works against battery powered stuff, which you might notice is a common GPS requirement.

"may explain various Landrovers with sat phones unexpectly ending up in a river" - I am willing to bet that is usually a faulty meat-based processing issue...

@McMoo

Glasgow has one, something guaranteed to rile Edinburgh folks...

Dundee has a Stormfront 'premium reseller' (whatever that means) which seem to have much the same ethos in terms of civilised staff (and I don't even own any Apple stuff).

@This is business guys...

Ideally yes, but if it is then it is really badly thought through.

I like/liked Ubuntu a lot, and I have no problem whatsoever about Canonical making money out of it. I just wish they listened and thought through things a bit better. Here is my main gripe list:

1) Changing user interfaces FOR NO GOOD!

Moving someone from XP is hard, as most non-geeks don't want change and just want to keep doing things without the diet of worms that Windows offers them.

Gnome 2 was good enough for that. Maybe Ubuntu's hand was forced with Gnome 3, but really I feel saddened by the loss of 'normal' GUI design and am now looking to XFCE as an escape.

2) Not fixing bugs.

I know of a few that I have participated in the reporting / diagnostics and they are being ignored, even for 10.04 LTS that is *supposed* to be supported. In a few cases the community has already fixed/moved on but nothing has been done to make it 'just happen' with Ubuntu updates.

3) Changing package choices (related to #2).

Why can't they choose something and stick with it? For example, dropping Rhythmbox for Banshee as sound player, or F-Spot for photos. Sure they were not perfect, but why should users of a non-geek type be forced to learn new stuff and system admin foreclosed to train/support changed for the sake of it?

Shades of point #1

While I am happy with things being added like like Ubuntu One for cloud storage/backup, or for paid apps in the repositories, it should not be at the expense of dumbing down package management to the point of uselessness (WTF dropping version & dependency info?).

There is a big market for an alternative to XP that is 'free' as in speech, and maybe paid for extras, but that is not going to be tablets. Cheap & old PC can use Linux/Gnome2 style software and users liked it.

Don't piss them off...

@Advertising

There is a big difference between providing information about products and services, and the psychological manipulation of human desires to create/amplify needs.

For example:

1) A basic brochure about some device, say an MP3 player, and showing its battery life, storage capacity, etc, maybe with a picture of said device.

2) A TV advert showing trendy/sexy/attractive people maybe dancing, or looking all happy due to having spunked lots of money on said device.

The second case is about manipulation of desires: to fit in, to be seen as attractive, in order to sell a brand-name product. For those susceptible (the majority, even if unconsciously) the 2nd approach leads to a feeling of being left out, of being disappointed, if they don't have said device, which I believe was the Rabbi's point.

You really did not know that?

But deeper than that, how do you think politicians 20th century onwards, and Hitler as a dramatic example, manipulate the public to support them? Psychology my dear anonymous coward, as started by Freud.

(Do I get any points for Godwining this soon?)

You should treat the opinions on the basis of the *opinion* expressed, not on the other view points they may have.

I am not religious, but I have to agree that advertising (and the psychology used behind it) is possibly the worst invention of modern times.

FTL => backwards in time

Relativity, as far as measured/observed sub-light speeds, fits the theoretical equation that implies time-reversal (or at least breaking causality) when v > c (look up "tachyonic antitelephone").

But of course it is not known if the theory holds outside of our experience, and thus if faster than light *is* capable of time-reversal.

@Sean Baggaley 1

You are quite right about making copies for sale or other distribution, and I think (hope?) most of El Reg's readers accept that when you pay for a CD or similar, you get a disk and a license for what is on the disk and it is only fair that creators get some reward for said license.

You omitted the point that you *HAVE* to make a copy of that data en route to the D/A converter to actually use it...

But pedantic arguments aside, my point is that with a CD you can re-sell it and transfer the license on the same terms (i.e. for own use, not public performance, etc). Why can't I do that in principle for the license for digital content?

I know (before you point it out) that it is hard with non-DRM media to ensure honesty in the transfer of the licensed content, but why can't I do it with DRM-infested stuff where they can see the *transfer* of license?

@Into the past?

They arrived at the detector before it should have been possible to know they had been sent

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

Even if faster-than-light travel is never possible, tachyon communications would be nice...

@AC 12:16

"Can we just get real.How serious was this? Everyone makes mistakes, anyone who works in software or IT should be very conscious of that."

You are right to a point, in this case no serious damage was caused to the population, etc. However, we are in 2011 and the vulnerability of computer systems, in particular anything using Windows, has been amply demonstrated for all of the last decade.

What this incident shows is a system that might have been fine off-line, without a half billion PCs potentially able to probe it, but clearly was not good enough. With a bit more effort & synchronisation perhaps a determined perpetrator could have wreaked havoc on most of the pups in a region, leading to the possibility of death or injury from disease or dehydration caused by a failure of such a fundamental human need: fresh water.

My point comes down to poking those in charge with a big pointy legal stick (not unnecessary prosecution of genuine mistakes) so that changes are made, and stupidly vulnerable systems (think Siemens and their SCADA's hard-coded passwords) are kept well detached from the internet in the future.

"This is deliberate critminal damage to the pumop and it is very difficult to see any benefit to the perpetrator so why the F**** did they do it."

Two possible answers spring to mind:

1) There is no reason. Just done for idle amusement.

2) Practice for a cyber-attack or a blackmail attempt.

@Toilet pwnage!

I had assumed that most US utilities were private companies doing the gov work. Even so, you find those who made the decisions and work up to the top, as you can still gaol government or court employees:

Why was it on the net? Ah, probably to save money.

Were the risks considered? Probably not, or ignored to save money.

Who ultimately took the decision (or applied budgetary pressure) that traded-off safety for running cost, and was that an acceptable risk or one that represents criminal negligence? If is was a windows-based box with hard-coded passwords, then negligence is the only answer.

Not twice, for sure...

@I believe you should *reconsider* your position

"A computer is a machine, a machine is absolute, why in the world would you want to feed it with imperfect time subject to random external variations causing more and more issues as processing power grows ?"

Because:

(1) Machines exist to serve *us*, we should not have to change to suit them.

(2) It is already a solved problem, just most programmers have chosen not to fix it, or are ignorant of the issue.

I'm not saying all of current systems are ideal, for example ntp & tz data should be updated so your normally patched OS have all of those troublesome adjustments delivered automatically (and maybe optional dynamic TZ selection for moving installations such as a ship etc), but really it is not such an impossible task to do.

@David Given

"Don't all sensible operating systems automatically render Postscript to whatever wacky format the printer supports behind the scenes?"

Have you thought about that statement?

Just how do you do that if the manufacturer is not willing to supply documentation for the whacky format? It is all very well to assume all printers have a Windows driver, but for what versions of windows? And what about a Mac driver? Or Linux?

That is why I asked about compatibility, and why the other comment about postscript is so relevant - it works and is OS-independent.