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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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Oh yeah, what could possibly go wrong here. I tried to figure out how this connects but all they say is that you interface with it through an app on your phone from miles away. The video and the actual website specifically do not show how it connects. It sure cannot be Wi-Fi so I'm guessing the unit itself will need cellular access ( and a plan and a bill ). They say it is all done in the cloud. Wonderful. Regardless, it is a nice portable spy unit, pretty much the perfect thing to be in someone's house ... especially perfect if you're a criminal or a spook ( is there a difference now? ). They are marketing it for dummies, they even say so, therefore I expect zero configuration dumbness and the zero effective security that goes with it.

Actually one of the few meaningful pieces of info that page has is that it is a Wi-Fi device :whistle:, you know, like:

Inside the cylinder-shaped Canary is an HD camera with night vision and 170 degree wide angle lens, Wi-Fi, high quality microphone and speaker, RGB LEDs, 3-axis accelerometer, motion detection (passive infrared), temperature sensor and an air quality sensor.

From what it is said about it, you can make one today DIY by cleverly putting together a Wi-Fi IPcam, a VoiP handsfree phone and a couple more sensors/gizmos.

But how can we be really sure that they didn't figure out a way using grayscale on non-color printers ( or any color on bubblejets ). Hmmmmm.

You cannot, that's the clever part.

Besides russians reverting to typewriters, is seem like people that attended a (yaawn) security conference in 2012 thanked the organization in handwriting ;):

http://proconf-iceland.com/HackerHalted/

(not so loosely connected to misinformation, badly designed sites and what not)

Just for the record, in the event, for a mere several thousands dollars fee :w00t: you will be able to meet and hear the speeches/presentations of information technology and security leaders like

  • Jay Bavisi
  • Eric Lopez
  • Paula Januszkiewicz
  • Jennifer Lesser
  • Dave Chronister
  • Kevin Cardwell

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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This product looks intriguing, but it appears to offer less than complete protection ;) :

The new Steganos Online Shield 365 protects you extensively and continuously while being on the Internet. It locks hackers out reliably and secures you online when you shop, browse or download -356 days a year.

[emphasis added]

I am curious as to what makes this product different from a VPN, considering that they already have a product billing itself as a VPN.

--JorgeA

EDIT: Steganos swiftly replied to my inquiry about this. The two products (Anonym VPN and Online Shield 365) are indeed very similar, differing mainly in the license (Online Shield can only be activated at one PC but covers unlimited traffic, whereas Anonym VPN can be installed on multiple PCs but up to 100GB of traffic per month. The former uses servers in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Switzerland, while the latter uses servers based in Germany only.

Edited by JorgeA
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Actually one of the few meaningful pieces of info that page has is that it is a Wi-Fi device :whistle:, you know, like:

Inside the cylinder-shaped Canary is an HD camera with night vision and 170 degree wide angle lens, Wi-Fi, high quality microphone and speaker, RGB LEDs, 3-axis accelerometer, motion detection (passive infrared), temperature sensor and an air quality sensor.

From what it is said about it, you can make one today DIY by cleverly putting together a Wi-Fi IPcam, a VoiP handsfree phone and a couple more sensors/gizmos.

Yeah I did see that, but I meant how does it connect to the outside world, i.e., to you on your cellphone at work? It sends you messages and you can "call it up" and watch a live feed.

I interpreted that Wi-Fi reference at the website as meaning it is available for home networking ( e.g., for administration like accessing its firmware ). But Wi-Fi ends maybe a hundred feet away from the access point. There has got to be something else. The curious thing is why the heck it is a secret?

It's possible they are going to have it act as a home network client device ( thru Wi-Fi ) and create a giant security hole in the process by leaving open ports on your router, use a static IP, you talk to the cloud from your phone, the cloud accesses the router 24/7/365? Bandwidth limitations for cable broadband are typically 2 MB/s down and if you're lucky 1 MB/s up ( insane for video feeds ) That's crazy.

This arrangement can be penetrated. The router IP will be picked up from any device from that network when they use email or forums, if someone has that they'll scan the neighboring incremental addresses for the router and then set about cracking the passphrase which will likely be a wireless auto-config dumb password. Then the intruder has realtime imaging, motion detectors, temperature and other stuff from your inner sanctum.

Devolution towards Idiocracy continues.

EDIT: thinking about it some more, if they position the cloud in between the router and your cellphone, meaning you cannot directly call this device, then there may be adequate security IF they use strong authentication on their end where no-one besides your cellphone can get in. Quite a big "IF" these days. But there is still the problem of possibly leaving open ports on the router. A hacker would then find it useful information to know if someone has one of these devices because even if they cannot access the device ( there's that "IF" again ), they still have an unsecured home network they may be able to exploit.

Once hackers get a hold of one of these things they'll know how it auto-configures ( for MetroTards ) for example what kind of passphrase format ( number of chars ), and what IP address offset to the router IP address it prefers, what ports if any it leaves open, etc. Then the knowledge is out there for the rest of the bad guys. They will have to come up with some randomizing features in the future. Maybe sometimes use 12 chars, sometimes 16, use different port numbers, etc.

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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I interpreted that Wi-Fi reference at the website as meaning it is available for home networking ( e.g., for administration like accessing its firmware ). But Wi-Fi ends maybe a hundred feet away from the access point. There has got to be something else. The curious thing is why the heck it is a secret?

It's possible they are going to have it act as a home network client device ( thru Wi-Fi ) and create a giant security hole in the process by leaving open ports on your router, use a static IP, you talk to the cloud from your phone, the cloud accesses the router 24/7/365? Bandwidth limitations for cable broadband are typically 2 MB/s down and if you're lucky 1 MB/s up ( insane for video feeds ) That's crazy.

This arrangement can be penetrated. The router IP will be picked up from any device from that network when they use email or forums, if someone has that they'll scan the neighboring incremental addresses for the router and then set about cracking the passphrase which will likely be a wireless auto-config dumb password. Then the intruder has realtime imaging, motion detectors, temperature and other stuff from your inner sanctum.

Devolution towards Idiocracy continues.

EDIT: thinking about it some more, if they position the cloud in between the router and your cellphone, meaning you cannot directly call this device, then there may be adequate security IF they use strong authentication on their end where no-one besides your cellphone can get in. Quite a big "IF" these days. But there is still the problem of possibly leaving open ports on the router. A hacker would then find it useful information to know if someone has one of these devices because even if they cannot access the device ( there's that "IF" again ), they still have an unsecured home network they may be able to exploit.

42. :yes:

Besides being the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe and everything, it represents also, most probably:

  • in minutes the time a real hacker will need to hack into it
  • in hours the time before the hack is posted on the underground
  • in days the time before it leaks into the open

jaclaz

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More on the cybersurveillance front:

Foreign VPNs raise the bar against U.S. government spying

Not entirely good news by any means, though worth reading anyway. But note what company's missing from the following list :whistle: :

Congress adding stricter privacy protections to the Patriot Act is the best way to protect privacy. Apple, Google and Facebook, which promise customer privacy with their services, have joined civil liberty groups in lobbiyng Congress to change the law.

--JorgeA

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Windows Weekly 312 features a spirited debate between Leo and Mary Jo (mostly) against guest Peter Bright, who defended Windows 8, the removal of the Start Button, and Metro apps.

The fun starts quietly at 57:30 with a factual report by Mary Jo and then the fireworks begin about 58:35. And about a minute after that, Leo brings up the idea of an OS that can tell what kind of hardware it's on, and select Desktop or Metro accordingly.

Peter states that bringing back the Start Button is a mistake "if" Metro apps are the future, as people need to start getting used to that interface. Whereupon Leo uncorks the best line of the whole discussion:

LL: Yeah, but are Metro apps the future? That's a terrifying future! I don't want everything to be full-screen -- that's a step backwards, that's called DOS with GUI, with graphics.

--JorgeA

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And about a minute after that, Leo brings up the idea of an OS that can tell what kind of hardware it's on, and select Desktop or Metro accordingly.

Well, with all due respect ;):

captainobvious.jpg

A new idea :w00t: would be a OS that can measure instantly the IQ of the user (through some specialized hardware, face recognition or something like that).

Something like (pseudocode ;)):

IF user IS NOT LIKE "demented" THEN GOTO :StartMenu ELSE GOTO :NCI

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Windows Weekly 312 features a spirited debate between Leo and Mary Jo (mostly) against guest Peter Bright, who defended Windows 8, the removal of the Start Button, and Metro apps.

The fun starts quietly at 57:30 with a factual report by Mary Jo and then the fireworks begin about 58:35. And about a minute after that, Leo brings up the idea of an OS that can tell what kind of hardware it's on, and select Desktop or Metro accordingly.

Peter states that bringing back the Start Button is a mistake "if" Metro apps are the future, as people need to start getting used to that interface. Whereupon Leo uncorks the best line of the whole discussion:

LL: Yeah, but are Metro apps the future? That's a terrifying future! I don't want everything to be full-screen -- that's a step backwards, that's called DOS with GUI, with graphics.

--JorgeA

We call him Peter not so Bright because of things like this.

In Peter's mind, Microsoft sets the rules and we must obey. Where he got this notion is beyond me, but he is one of the primary reasons Ars Technica has been in the toilet with respect to Windows and Microsoft. They're okay for pure scientific if a bit tabloid, but on Windows they are nipping at the heels of The Verge and NeoWin.

Anywho, think about his hypothesis that Windows 8 and Metro should be forced into the public consciousness. We are talking about non-Microsoft hardware here ( save for the handful of Surface units out there ). Microsoft has no more expectation of "owning" OEM hardware than XYZ Incorporated from Timbuktu. The truth is that Microsoft is the 3rd party in this case. They just happen to be a very lucky 3rd party that maneuvered their way into this position during the aftermath of the IBM epic fail and the death of DOS as a pure operating system. What is stupendously ignorant is the way Peter and all MetroTards forget with ease how Microsoft violated antitrust and is a convicted monopolist and but for a technicality would have been busted up for old crimes that are dwarfed by new worse crimes that he is cheerleading for. Microsoft was beat up for inserting a browser into a operating system that was still is preinstalled to the exclusion of all others.

This time around, in addition to the browser they also have a funnel called the Microsoft Store that leads to ... wait for it ... Microsoft. And the operating system itself is the textbook definition of planned obsolescence, specifically the Metro portion that is a walled garden curated by the aforementioned convicted monopolist Microsoft, and they skim a third from those apps in a Sopranos sized cut. Can anyone imagine John Rockefeller getting away with a second bite at the apple like Microsoft is trying to do?

The worse part of all is the fact that the Metro side is a non-x86 architecture, that is to say that even though the underlying CPU and chipset is x86, the operating system on the Metro side is designed to reject the millions of x86 applications developed by scab authors who have not paid their 30% cut to the MicroMonopolists. Oh yeah, like a good MicroBot they'll say "Well the desktop is still there", but it will only remain there until they feel they can get away with killing it forever. Then, the kidnapping of these computers and their users is complete. That's the plan in a nutshell. And either Peter not so Bright doesn't understand it or he does and supports it. Either case explains his nickname.

I still can't believe that Intel isn't making more noise about this, because Metro is a threat to them also as it can be visualized as an extra abstraction above the traditional x86 kernel, a new layer that locks out native apps for the physical architecture they invented. Hopefully they have something up their sleeves.

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Xbox Live currently experiencing service disruption (Update: It's fixed) ( NeoWin 2013-07-23 )

Yeah, another day another cloud problem, this time Xbox. No biggie though, it was apparently short ( although NeoWin does not specify that bit of information for some strange reason ).

The fun part is in the comments where the extremely touchy MetroTards go madly on the defensive. You know they just dread these things because they feel they must explain them since they have been trumpeting how great the cloud is. Their psyche has been damaged from all the battles that Microsoft has forced these loyalists into. They must wake up each day praying that Xbox Live or Office 364 is running flawlessly, else they must don their battle gear and fight some more. :lol:

These two are talking about the MicroZealots in the thread ...

I think I've just entered the twilight zone of apologists.

No kidding. This place is un freaking believable sometimes.

New Microsoft infographic gives Windows XP a retirement party ( NeoWin 2013-07-24 )

Grrrr. How lame can they get! An "infographic" that is childish and Metroish and worst of all, ridiculous. It is supposedly designed to tell businesses why they need to go from Windows XP to Windows 8, yet they offer absolutely zero business reasons and actually embarrass themselves in the process by talking about social and other stuff.

Have a look ... Microsoft_RetirementParty.jpg ( 1.5 MB )

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New Microsoft infographic gives Windows XP a retirement party ( NeoWin 2013-07-24 )

Grrrr. How lame can they get! An "infographic" that is childish and Metroish and worst of all, ridiculous. It is supposedly designed to tell businesses why they need to go from Windows XP to Windows 8, yet they offer absolutely zero business reasons and actually embarrass themselves in the process by talking about social and other stuff.

Have a look ... Microsoft_RetirementParty.jpg ( 1.5 MB )

That picture hurts my eyes. Also reminds me of the kind of things I could create with whatever bloatware came with the Windows 95 on my old Packard Bell.

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This one will either make you laugh hysterically or cry, or maybe both ...

NSA Says It Cant Search Its Own Emails ( ProPublica 2013-07-23 )

The NSA is a "supercomputing powerhouse" with machines so powerful their speed is measured in thousands of trillions of operations per second. The agency turns its giant machine brains to the task of sifting through unimaginably large troves of data its surveillance programs capture.

But ask the NSA, as part of a freedom of information request, to do a seemingly simple search of its own employees' email? The agency says it doesnt have the technology.

"There's no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately," NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week.

The system is a little antiquated and archaic," she added.

Sounds like a big fat lie to me. :yes:

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42. :yes:

Besides being the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe and everything, it represents also, most probably:

  • in minutes the time a real hacker will need to hack into it
  • in hours the time before the hack is posted on the underground
  • in days the time before it leaks into the open
jaclaz

True that.

There are so many people that use the autoconfig on their routers that I've seen. It's usually a ridiculous xxx-xxx-xxx with the hyphens included. Trying to walk them through correcting it over the phone is a nightmare, and doing it in person is worse because they then feel you should answer every future question about everything once you have "did something to it". I'll bet everyone here knows exactly what I mean.

And then there's quite a few more that have no security enabled at all because it is too much of a hassle to have to give the password to a guest ( in itself a bad idea ) or a huge chore to figure out their router's guest mode if it even has it. The people with the open access point may have thankful neighbors, but are actually doing something frowned upon by the ISP ( well, at least the cable companies ) because it is almost the same thing as sharing cable TV except it is the digital pipe now. Wait 'til a neighbor uses Netflix, or worse, trips some terrorist keyword filter. That's gonna hurt. :yes:

Ironically, being now in the broadband era, when everyone got laptops they obviously got some kind of routers too ( with hardware firewalls and NAT ) which definitely boosted the general state of security from where it was in the earlier era with new broadband but few routers. We are at a huge step up from around 2000 to 2002 when it was open season on broadband, and got so bad that Microsoft added a software firewall to XP.

But here we go again. After finally getting to a manageable point with pretty good security from the ISP to the desktop, the tech industry is once again aiming for the sheeple with an incoming tidal wave of must-have home security thingies that will be on Amazon, HSN and QVC. Ironically using the term "Security" for devices that will actually weaken security is the ultimate oxymoron. But it's okay, the sheeple will get to sit around the table at parties showing each other their phones with a live feed of their pets, new curtains or flatscreen TV.

The human race is doomed, again ... nuke it from orbit ... it's the only way to be sure.

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Windows Weekly 312 features a spirited debate between Leo and Mary Jo (mostly) against guest Peter Bright, who defended Windows 8, the removal of the Start Button, and Metro apps.

The fun starts quietly at 57:30 with a factual report by Mary Jo and then the fireworks begin about 58:35. And about a minute after that, Leo brings up the idea of an OS that can tell what kind of hardware it's on, and select Desktop or Metro accordingly.

Peter states that bringing back the Start Button is a mistake "if" Metro apps are the future, as people need to start getting used to that interface. Whereupon Leo uncorks the best line of the whole discussion:

LL: Yeah, but are Metro apps the future? That's a terrifying future! I don't want everything to be full-screen -- that's a step backwards, that's called DOS with GUI, with graphics.

--JorgeA

Peter Bright just dies when discussing with Leo Laporte. His facial expressions when debating with Mary and Leo are priceless.

1:09:00 - Pure destruction of Peter Bright. It's like all the bad moments of the presidential debates rolled into one compilation vid.

Metrotards would be booed out in a TV debate. That's why there is such a strong censorship on places like Neowin.

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A new idea :w00t: would be a OS that can measure instantly the IQ of the user (through some specialized hardware, face recognition or something like that).

Something like (pseudocode ;)):

IF user IS NOT LIKE "demented" THEN GOTO :StartMenu ELSE GOTO :NCI

jaclaz

Yeah, that woud make life so much easier for the rest of us! :thumbup

But don't you worry -- before we know it, every PC will have security login combining biometrics and complex gesture-based passwords. It'll take the user's blood,iris scan, etc., and then combine the info with the results of the gesture test to derive an estimate of intellectual ability to provide the appropriate UI for that user.

And then send the data thus collected to the NSA, of course. Who knows, it could be a terrorist trying to log in. Better safe than sorry... :rolleyes:

--JorgeA

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