Posts by Peter 39

data access

Resetting the password doesn't necessarily mean access to protected data

over a year

Microsoft caused the initial problem but the patch has been out for over a year.

So why are the fixes not being applied?

Put another way, if the people who have been in charge of applying the fixes *remain* in charge of applying the fixes -- then "follow the money". Someone's being paid off for the contract

defense

Ever heard of "defense in depth" ??

No" Didn't think so. Exposing sensitive data because of a router snafu is a Grade A "FAIL"

No sympathy. Get a job doing something unrelated to sensitive data.

seriously, guys

Flash is a trojan horse for being able to run arbitrary content.

Apple has said that that *this* is the reason they don't support it. The same was true for an app that had an emulator (Commodore 64 if I recall correctly). They don't want hacks taking over people's iPhones or iPads (and they don't want an anti-virus industry there either). So far they've been successful and I hope this keeps up.

How many "critical" exploits have been uncovered in Flash during the last year or so. Quite a few. Adobe's stuff is like swiss cheese (apologies to the Swiss).

more than metering

metering is only a start.

The real payoff comes when certain consumers of large amounts of electricity (air conditioners, clothes dryers, etc) can be controlled remotely. That's where this is headed.

I guess the coder has forgotten both the Netscape ssl fisaco and the more recent Debian one. Both were failures of randon-number generation. If you want random to come out then you have to start with (more or less) random input. Fail to do that and even the best PRNG can't help you.

Those who refuse to read history are doomed to repeat it.

slow down

Time to think about the types of patent, folks. Microsoft's are all for software and the U.S. Supreme Court (and others) have put serious crimps on pure-software patents. I can't imagine that MS will be able to get a further patent on binary (yes - they have one).

IBM does a lot more with "stuff". Things you can touch and pick up.

So put this on hold for twelve months and then revise it - I think you'll find the trend to be quite different.

crikey

... but Albury !! (I guess all the Albury folks will get upset now)

IBM-Novell

But if IBM buys Novell it will buy into Novell's deal with MS. That might be a bad taste.

On the other hand, SCO would positively *love* it. They be back in court in an instant arguing that IBM and Novell have been in cahoots all along. And that, since the companies would now be merged, they should have to fight only one lawsuit rather than two.

Silly, twisted fools.

how about MS stores

I wonder how Microsoft's stores are doing? I know at least one is open, maybe both are by now.

Anyone have any idea of how busy they are, now that the opening-hoopla has died down?

Verizon and NXDOMAIN

I recently signed up for Verizon FiOS and the TOS specifiy that they do NXDOMAIN redirection.

And they also say that you can opt-out !

I'm not actually on this yet (next week) so I don't know what the opt-out process is. But at least there is one.

Of course, you have to actually read the TOS documents to find this out. And in a small, non-resizable browser window that is very painful. Even more so since the ordering process times out if you take too long. It took me three cycles before I could actually complete an order. They helpfully say that they will send you a copy but of course you have to agree first. That's only a 98% Catch-22 because they do have a 15-day no-penalty cancellation policy.

shuttle tiles

thermal tiles like those on the space shuttle would be a good place to start. Those are too fragile right now but I'm sure that can be fixed. After all, they don't need to resist re-entry heat, just jet exhaust.

Sensible outcome

Google probably ham-fisted the original issue, but it's certainly reasonable to avoid your employees having private/personal NDAs with competitors (depends upon the topic, of course).

I think this is a clean and sensible outcome. And I think a few managers at Google have had sensitivity training

pricing

I guess the proof of the pudding ...

if the spectrum auction is more than FCC pays for reclaim, then happiness

if less, then despair. That is, we taxpayers foot the loss. So, FCC - make sure that taxpayers don't get stuck.

Oh. By the way - how much did the holders of the spectrum currently pay for that privilege?? I think that *that* should factor into your pricing model for the "reclaim"

interesting price

I wonder how accurate that price is. I'm sure many vendors would like to know. So would I.

where's the fork ?

Steve - you're done. Win 7 will totter and stabilize but the ludicrous Vista->Win 7 upgrade prices mean that many will only buy it with a new PC. Whenever that happens, as you admit. So no big revenue bump. Pity :(

If you had priced it at, say $29 like Apple's upgrade, there would be big take up and a success story. At rip-off prices in a recession, well - who are you kidding? That wouldn't have been a revenue bump either but would have been great PR. How come you didn't realize that?

Bing and Mobile? They're just rounding errors.

Sorry Steve, you're toast. the only decision is which flavour of jam you prefer.

expected price

MS is great at Marketing spin so they're saying that Win 7 is Great! Rah! Rah!

Seems more like a Vista Service Pack to me, but maybe it's like the Leopard->Snow Leopard upgrade. That cost me $29, and I'd pay the same to upgrade my copy of Vista Business to Win 7 Pro.

But $199. Steve - you have to be kidding! There is NO way that Win 7 *UPGRADE* from Vista should be that price. Find a way to extend the $30 "academic" deal to owners of Vista.

Cluestick 101

I'm thrifty

and that means that I don't want to pay any more for a Vista Business -> Win 7 Pro upgrade than I paid for Leopard to Snow Leopard.

That was $29.

It's about time that MS got the message that Vista buyers should get Win 7 (which is what Vista should have been) for low cost. A free service-pack would be better, but low-cost will do.

Their present $199 fee for this is lunacy and certainly does not comport with "frugal"

... and statistics

They could better start by removing ActiveX

That would solve a whole lot more problems.

Microsoft stores

... or else you live close to one of the new Microsoft stores.

The line will stretch out the door and down the block and MS will say "Look how successful our new stores are"

fourth miss

I have a Mac Pro with Leopard and the Snow Leopard upgrade is $29. Maybe it's only a "service pack", but it's only $29.

I also have a Dell Vostro with Windows Vista Business. MS wants $199 to upgrade to Win 7 Pro. And we know that Win 7 is really Vista SP2, plus a little.

Fortunately that Vista license came with XP downgrade rights, and that's what I'll continue to use. Having been suckered once with Vista, there's no way I'm paying $199 for an UPGRADE.

That's just insane.

more as well

I hear also that Apple is fixing ("improving") Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) in Snow Leopard. This has been reported some time ago in a different context and bears repeating now that SL is near.

Apparently the version in Leopard was rather limp and not very effective. The availability of 64-bit address space has made it possible to do a lot better. It seems that this is one area where Microsoft's efforts have been quite effective, and better done than Apple's.

been done before

These are exactly the same issues that Apple had with "Classic" mode when Mac OS X was introduced. All sorts of ugliness, all sorts of exposure. It helped over the hump but I'm glad it's gone.

Hey Redmond, welcome to the nightmare :)

daft

Stone the crows - this is just daft.

I wonder if Rudd is just providing Senator Conroy with a generous supply of rope so he hang himself -- no assistance required?

There's no rational explanation for Conroy's proposals.

queue

I'll bet the line for help at the Guru Bar (or whatever they finally call it) at Mission Viejo stretches past the front of the Apple store

classic

I guess they have to call it "Windows XP Mode" rather than "Classic" because Apple already has a trademark for that sort of thing on Mac OS X (or maybe licensed it from Coke).

I'm sure it will become colloquially known as Classic though

hubris

>With the iPhone, it seems Microsoft has been guilty of underestimating

>the potential for Apple's success, possibly believing the world would

>one-day wake up after a brief fling and come back to Windows.

>That mistake goes right to the top of Microsoft.

The iPhone was released two years ago. And how has Microsoft used the two years?

As fruitfully as Apple? I don't think so.

Microsoft isn't even holding its own here - it's falling further behind as time passes. Ballmer can rant and throw chairs all he wants but this failing is on *his* watch.

misses the real numbers

Story misses the point about Apple's pricing.

Mac OS X $129.99 price is full retail for new copy.

Windows 7 Home Premium full retail is $199.99 (at Amazon)

MS upgrade (Vista Home Premium -> Win 7 Home Premium) is $119.99.

MaC OS X Leopard -> Snow Leopard is $29.99

So, tell me again how "Microsoft is going after customers who may have wobbled and gone to Apple on price"

I don't follow the math

havoc, eh?

> As for Malware. 1 infected USB drive will cause untld havoc.

As long as the PC is running Windows.

It's about time NHS was honest about TCO rather than just looking at lowball initial-cost numbers.

agree

The move will certainly be talked up by Microsoft as evidence of competition on the desktop. It's not really as MS has long-since leveraged its Windows monopoly into corporate apps (Word/Excel/Powerpoint and most importantly, the Exchange family) and droids (many IT staff).

But we're missing the point here, which is that the OS space is splitting. MS keeps trying to tell us that Windows is the only solution, and it is not. The solution for heavy local processing is not necessarily the same as that for lightweight netbooks, or phones etc. Many posts implicitly acknowledge this but others have clearly missed it. This is a game-changer.

Google has the smarts and the deep pockets to see that this is a first-class system. I'm sure it will be.