* Posts by Stephen Tordoff

17 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jun 2007

Raspberry Pi patch adds warranty-safe overclocking

Stephen Tordoff

Re: Why?

Not true in all cases, but there are a few reasons that overclocking can be reasonably safe:

1) The manufacturer clocks are typically the highest that they can guarantee for a large batch of CPUs, meaning that a significant number can go higher without any issues.

2) Overclockers typically have better CPU cooling than the default (which the manufacturer clocks are set for), meaning that errors are less likely at higher clock speeds.

3) The same silicon is occasionally used for both low and high speed CPUs, just with a multiplier/FSB change. It is cheaper to manufacture than having separate designs. In this situation, it is usually safe to overclock the lower CPU to match or exceed the better CPU.

4) Most overclockers test the speeds they attain. If the CPU can manage 100% utilisation for e.g. 24 hours, then it is unlikely to have errors in the future.

ASA keelhauls Ebuyer AGAIN - this time for dodgy disk ad

Stephen Tordoff
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Re: Ebuyer Deliveries

Apparently they have stopped doing full postage refunds (at least without arguing with them). From a recent discussion with them (I paid for next day delivery; items didn't arrive until the day after):

>When your delivery expectations have not been met we will refund the difference between the delivery option paid for and the delivery option received.

> [This] policy is not detailed on the site. [W]e appreciate that this item was delayed a day [so] we have only charged you for a 2 days delivery.

Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

Stephen Tordoff

Requests/second

>First, there is no way in hell my consumer-grade Netgear WiFi router will respond to that many requests.

It doesn't need to. Once you have captured a genuine WPA handshake, you can crack it offline. The router doesn't need to be involved.

Groupon cops triple slam from ads authority, blames newbies

Stephen Tordoff
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Full Complaint

IF you read the full complaint, I actually think that Groupon handled this fairly well. The complaints were rightly upheld, but it doesn't appear that Groupon deliberately set out to mislead people.

WD thrusts forth its mighty 3TB internal hardness

Stephen Tordoff

Re: 3TB really?

3TB is exactly 3,000,000,000,000 bytes.

Intel confirms HDCP copy-protection crack

Stephen Tordoff
FAIL

Cinavia

Look at the Cinavia protection. _If_ this was in all players, then copying with a microphone and camera would not work (yet!), as the watermark would still be captured, and it is surprising resilient to audio changes.

Also, why is The Register storing my password as plain-text? ಠ_ಠ

Wikileaks publishes encrypted 'insurance' file

Stephen Tordoff

Re: Encrypted? Nawwwwwwwww....

> "The NSA is unlikely to endorse anything it cannot read freely. You cannot read that file without the encryption key, but the NSA most certainly can."

Highly unlikely. Similar claims were made about DES when the NSA inexplicably (at the time) changed the S-Boxes (part of the encryption method). Many people believed that it was to weaken DES, but in reality it was to remove a weakness that the NSA knew about, but civilan researchers did not.

The NSA have also approved AES for internal use, so I doubt that it is vunerable.

Apple MacBook Late 2009

Stephen Tordoff

Combo digital optical and analog audio port?

Yep, they've been around for years

Main BBC channels to be broadcast live via web

Stephen Tordoff
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Already happened

http://www.tvcatchup.com/

First public Firefox 3 candidate shoots out the door

Stephen Tordoff

Now with FREE hidden useage tracking {opt-in}

That's the main difference between the two, Phorm is opt-out whereas Firefox is opt-in

BT Fusion rises again

Stephen Tordoff

@BT Fon

In order to use the 'BT FON' network for free, you have to set up your home hub to be a FONSpot IIRC.

This doesn't always work though. I signed to it, got instant access to the local BTFon spots. Three weeks later, my hub still hasn't been activated as a FONSpot

Never mind, moved to PlusNet now anyway. BTs support staff are generally terrible (Call on a weekend, seem to get the Newcastle call center more often than not. Much better than the out-sourced centers used in the week)

Automated crack for Windows Live captcha goes wild

Stephen Tordoff

Re: Plus Address

A email in this form name+string@domain.com surely will not fool spammers, they just disgard the information after the +

New Bond film title voted a 'Licence to Thrill!'

Stephen Tordoff
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Does anyone care?

Does anyone actually care what ~8000 people think of a film title?

(It's 89.87:10.13 now anyway)

Gates' spontaneity highlights IE data gap

Stephen Tordoff
Gates Horns

@b4k4

I think that Microsoft cannot take down MSFirefox as the trademarks are being used for parody, which I believe is protected under law.

Also, I don't think they care too much

Sony's 40GB PS3 for Europe confirmed

Stephen Tordoff
IT Angle

Wrong

<QUOTE> "Most notably, the system won't sport any backwards compatibility with PlayStation

2 games."

Correction: It will not sport the Emotion chipset for backwards compatibility, but will continue to support PlayStation 2 games via software emulation. </QUOTE>

The current PS3 has the PS2 grahpics chip (GS) and just emulation the emotion engine. This new PS3 has neither, so NO PS2 Game support AT ALL, emulated or not. (Whether this will be added in a fireware update is open to arguement, but I see it as unlikely)

Lawyerless eBayer sues Autodesk over garage-sale miracle

Stephen Tordoff

Office 2007

@Paul,

Ebay were right to pull your auction. You entered the competition knowing that it was not for resale, if not you did not read the entry info properly.

Google embarasses MapQuest

Stephen Tordoff

Re: Junction Numbers

Already there, eg Junction 31 of the M1

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=s26+2fu&ie=UTF8&ll=53.364869,-1.278534&spn=0.012522,0.040169&z=15&om=1