Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

StatCounter: Windows XP is the most used OS in eight countries, including China ( NeoWin 2013-09-16 )

Lots of FUD of course. Lots of borderline racism too with this stuff about Asians pirating everything. Even if it is true and I doubt it, especially that crazy 90% garbage, maybe the lesson the 'Tards should take away is that maybe they really want Windows XP and not the training wheels versions of Vista and 7, and especially the kiddie Playskool Microsoft Tiles for Retards. Dot MetroTard makes an appearance naturally in his capacity as unpaid evangelist for NuMicrosoft.

Germans Give Out Linux to Windows XP Die-Hards ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-17 )

Windows XP's time is running out, but the city government of Munich, Germany, knows one way to mitigate the dying system's security risk: Switch the entire city over to the Ubuntu Linux operating system, specifically Version 12.04 Long Term Support (Precise Pangolin).

Hehehe. They still manage to inject a bunch of FUD into the article though ...

Switching your OS may sound intimidating, but it's not nearly as scary as subjecting yourself to the building library of malware that will debut after the sun sets on Windows XP.

Oooh, I'm so scared I'm shaking.

Microsoft: Windows XP market share at 21 percent; goal of 13 percent by April 8 ( NeoWin 2013-09-19 )

21%? Wait, what? One commenter calls them out ...

Didn't we used to go by the statistics from Net Applications? The previous article regarding Windows 8 usage, http://www.neowin.net/news/win...in-august-windows-8-gains-2 used Net Applications' data.

Diabolically genius move by Microsoft. If they're able to convince the general population that Windows XP usage is declining, users may feel inclined to make it a reality.

Yes, sounds about right to me. Microsoft could almost be staffed by a bunch of dirtbag politicians. Naturally that NeoWin thread reeks of FUD, just one example ...

To all of those who say there's nothing wrong with the idea to keep using what works now...I agree with the sentiment as a general rule, but really, you'd better hope those XP systems are well isolated from the internet come next April.

Hackers right now are just quietly sitting on a bunch of unpublished exploits. Once there's no more update to XP, those systems are prime targets. Even within the confines of an intranet, I suspect things are gonna get messy.

Yeah sure fanboy. The truth of the matter is that once you really do switch from Windows XP or older to a newer Vista+ OS, then you have made an Indiana Jones leap of faith from a pre-9/11 to a post-9/11 operating system and you will have one that was built with government cooperation in mind during the design stage. That is the unquestionable truth. So, to quote a famous song ... Who Do You Trust?

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Bad news for Microsoft! Jessica Alba spotted with an iPhone after her deal to endorse Windows phone expired ( UK DailyMail 2013-09-13 )

Jessica Alba Caught Using an iPhone ( Thurrott 2013-09-13 )

Hehe Check out the DailyMail article which really hits it out of the park with slam dunk photos and comparative shots against her Microsoft commercials and even one with Ballmer. I think this is simply hysterical because looking at her posing she really couldn't care less! Thurrott is all worked up about it ...

Why is this a big deal? Because Jessica Alba is a paid spokesperson forand alleged convert toWindows Phone. In what can only be described as the biggest tech industry soap opera since BlackBerry celebrity spokesperson Alicia Keys was also caught using an iPhone (yes, this is as juicy as it gets around here), Ms. Alba was spotted using an iPhone at Fashion Week in New York because, you know, that's what celebrities do. Or something. All I have to say about this is that I complained quite vocally when Microsoft carted out this borderline talent last year. And this is what the company deserves for doing so.

That Windows Phone just ain't cutting it for her.

( Source: UK DailyMail )

The Death of the Windows Desktop. It's dead, Jim ( Thurrott 2013-09-17 )

-{ ... way way way too much Industrial Strength Fanboyism to quote! ... }-

It's dead Jim? No it's not. Only your credibility is dead Paul.

Thurrott has completely reverted to form once again. Before reading his unreal freefall into shillville, be sure to read his original disaster. This is when we dubbed him Paul "The Desktop Must Die" Thurrott because of using those exact words. He seesaws almost weekly on many things but we do know what is truly in his heart. He is an AppleTard and he just never knew it until Microsoft started building their own walled-garden. For all his slamming and jealousy of Apple and Google, all along there was a tiny little 'Tard locked up deep inside him just itching to get out. Thanks to Microsoft and their Playskool interface, Paul "The Desktop Must Die" Thurrott is free at last!

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

And from the Competition ...

Tim Cook: Microsoft is copying Apple's strategy, Nokia died due to lack of innovation ( TechSpot 2013-09-19 )

Apple goes on the offensive, blasts Nokia and Android fragmentation ( NeoWin 2013-09-19 )

Apple CEO Tim Cook Trash Talks Android ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-19 )

Naturally the NeoWin thread is a classic circle jerk of anti-Apple trolls offended that Tim Cook has correctly identified Microsoft as a cynical copycat, which is ironic since they pile on Apple each day at the drop of a hat. Truly there has never been anything like this hypocisy. The MicroZealots and MetroTards are everything the alleged snooty Apple drones were stereotypically described as, and more.

I've said it before and here it is once again. I have long worked with people wedded to Macs because they made up a majority of the creative arts in the 1980's and 1990's. Musicians, Producers, Artists, Photographers, Publishing, practically everything up and down the line was done on Macs except pure business, low-taxing processing by cubicle monkeys. I cannot recall actually meeting any of those alleged arrogant anti-Microsoft MacTards though. This is not to say they didn't exist, just that I never had a problem and I was a charter PC member.

But here we are, with countless MetroTards and MicroZealots that put that stereotype to shame by viciously smearing Apple with their every breath. It is frickin unbelievable and IMHO all can be traced to the Vista era when Microsoft poisoned the well of the user space by inexplicably trying to ram Vista down everybody's throats and then declaring a Jihad on the PC itself when things didn't go their way. This is reason enough to root for Microsoft's complete destruction now. They need to be beaten bloody before they manage to undo everything we all worked for for over three decades.

Apple now offers last compatible versions of apps for older iOS devices ( TechSpot 2013-09-17 )

Apple is set to launch iOS 7 tomorrow, and now the company is showing some extended support for those with older iOS devices. Users with older devices can now easily download a back dated version of an app from the last time it was compatible with their device.

Now there's a thought that never crossed the minds of the decision makers at Microsoft.

Goldgenie is selling the iPhone 5s with real gold cases for as much as $4,144.63 ( NeoWin 2013-09-18 )

.

( Originals: 1, 2 )

Now that's what "gold" really looks like, not that creamy vomit color that Jony Ive selected.

Apple launches iOS 7, along with new interface for iCloud ( NeoWin 2013-09-19 )

( Originals: 1, 2 )

That 2nd image is supplied by NeoWin owner NeoBond and really highlights why I believe Jony Ive might be losing his eyesight. Normally a blurry background enhances the 3D appearance of the foreground, but only when foreground objects have some visual depth like 3D characteristics such as lighting, bevels and drop shadows. What Jony Ive has done is remove them just like the MicroDummies did, but he still added a fuzzy background anyway. Consequently the background is almost a distraction rather than an enhancement. Compounding this error in these theme they chose white text ( just like Nokia did ) on a light background! Man, I feel like I woke up in CrazyVille!

Of course I am strictly talking about the visuals here, NOT the under-the-hood enhancements. The visuals are what you actually have to face day-in and day-out and neither Microsoft nor Apple has a clue anymore. And as your eyes get older, the 'Tards will understand this.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Security and Privacy issues ...

Virgin Mobile uses your webcam to change YouTube ads every time you blink ( TechSpot 2013-09-17 )

So here they are trying their best to out-Kinect Kinect and that creepy patent that Microsoft holds. Amazingly the commenters appear to be impressed! And to think that decades ago the FCC brought down the hammer on some commercials that used subliminal messaging because they rightly expected it to snowball into much worse things. Well this may not quite be subliminal, but it is just as bad, if not worse.

Google knows every single Android user's WiFi password ( TechSpot 2013-09-16 )

Backing Up Android Means Giving Google Passwords ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-16 )

I thought everybody already knew about this but I guess that thanks to the spy leaks everyone is re-evaluating everything. Good. I never use this type of setting, it's pure convenience only, saving having to type in a password just one time on those stupid little on screen keyboards with several pages for alphanumeric chars and special chars. How lazy does someone have to be to place a Wi-Fi password into the cloud to save typing it once!

Why You Need to Use Encrypted Email ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-16 )

Beat the FBI: How to Send Anonymous Email Without Getting Caught ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-16 )

Another pair of security articles from Tom's Hardware. Moderate skill level. Pass them on to friends and family and get the word out. People need to educate themselves before it is too late.

Former NSA head says Gmail is number one ... with terrorists ( NeoWin 2013-09-17 )

Sounds like a preemptive strike justifying whatever they are planning on doing next. This is exactly the kind of loaded propaganda that the intellectual under-achievers in Congress need to hear to green light anything and everything. Wonderful.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

More Security and Privacy issues ...

Wickr, Secure Self-Destructing Message App, Arrives on Android ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-17 )

"Wickr for Android is powering users to send self-destructing messages without a trace," wrote Wickr co-founder and chief technology officer Robert Statica in a press statement. "Wickr does not collect any personally identi?able information on users, nor can we read any messages or contents sent through Wickr; therefore, no criminal or rogue government can take them from us."

Fellow Wickr co-founder Nico Sell told Cnet that "Wickr has been approached by the FBI and [was] asked for a backdoor. We said no."

Sounds interesting but one comment raises a good question: "They said no to the FBI, good on em, wonder what they said to the NSA?". Hmmmm.

Google's proprietary AdID may replace third-party tracking cookies ( TechSpot 2013-09-18 )

Google rumored to replace cookies with anonymous identifier for ad tracking ( NeoWin 2013-09-18 )

Google may be planning to finally ditch the dreaded cookies that are a part of most web browsers in favor of a new method to track the activities of Internet users. USAToday reports, via unnamed sources, that the proposed replacement for cookies would be an anonymous identifier, or AdID.

Out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. Sorry, I'll pass.

Thieves won't be able to sever your finger to unlock the iPhone 5S ( TechSpot 2013-09-17 )

After all, this wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened. Years ago, a man lost his finger to a gang of Malaysian car thieves who were trying to start his fingerprint-secured Mercedes S-class sedan.

A secondary concern is that if fingerprint validation becomes the industry standard, then once yours is stolen, theres nothing you can really do about it. At least with a passcode, you can just make a new one after its been compromised; an option that clearly doesnt exist with personal body parts.

[...]

Sebastien Taveau, chief technology officer at fingerprint sensor provider Validity Sensors, explained to Mashable, The technology is built in a way that the image has to be taken from a live finger. No one in biometrics wants to talk about cut fingers and dead bodies, but at the end of the day we are still asked to remove the fears of consumers and make sure they understand that a severed finger will not work.

Well I still don't like it. Your fingerprint will probably be stored somewhere ( well unless they just store a hash and recalculate it each time you press it, but I gotta think this will be high CPU cost ). It is surely inevitable that if they are stored they will be copied. And there will be no need to cut off a finger if you can just 3D print a small mockup that is good enough to wear like a glove. I predict that this will become a boon to criminals in the near future when they get to wear other people's fingerprints for day-to-day activities and even crime.

Actually we don't even have to worry about the biometrics in iPhones at all. All they need to do is collect any of the millions of already existing fingerprint photos all over the world, many are already online, and write some software that will convert them to 3D printer source files and voilà! Long-dead people will be resurrected and be committing crimes all over the world. Perhaps the entire concept of fingerprints is about to be removed from all possible use of unique identification. The so-called benefit-of-the-doubt will need to be considered.

Money, alcohol and a dirty sex book offered for iPhone 5s fingerprint sensor hack ( NeoWin 2013-09-19 )

And it's already begun.

[jaclaz]

This article is a bit on the technical side, but it provides some insight as to how backdoors creep into security software:

Yes , but - specifically - it's not really "news" (from a technical standpoint), the comment by user twilightomni is accurate:

This is ludicrous.

Academic cryptographers have been ringing alarm bells about the Dual EC_DRNG algorithm since 2007. It's suspicious construction was *known*.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_EC_DRBG#Controversy

Anyone using the algorithm after the paper by Shumow and Ferguson was published at the CRYPTO 2007:

http://rump2007.cr.yp.to/15-shumow.pdf

and after the article by Bruce Schneier posted:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_strange_sto.html

was eidently doing that intentionally or because of unexcusable ignorance.

As Matthew Green puts it in this excellent article:

http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2013/09/the-many-flaws-of-dualecdrbg.html

Now I should point out that much of this is ancient history. What is news today is the recent leak of classified documents that points a very emphatic finger towards Dual_EC, or rather, to an unnamed '2006 NIST standard'. The evidence that Dual-EC is this standard has now become so hard to ignore that NIST recently took the unprecedented step of warning implementers to avoid it altogether.

About the live finger vs. cut out finger, it is the good ol' same bull$hit.

A US$ 5 wrench:

has traditionally proved to work alright for ol'passwords, no matter the algorithm used, elliptic curves or whatever, this time you will have the additional issue that if you forget your phone at the office you will not anymore be able to instruct your secretary to access it to retrieve that address or phone number that is only stored there and you will have to drive back some 300 miles instead .

The only good thing that can come out of it is that if you accidentally break your finger or hand and need to have it bandaged/put in a cast, you are cut out of the rest of the world for the time needed for it to heal.

Of course this will never happen, as there will be surely an "alternate" way (password) to access the phone (unless the good Apple guys are completely crazy).

http://www.macworld.com/article/2048514/the-iphone-5s-fingerprint-reader-what-you-need-to-know.html

Does this mean I don’t need iOS passcodes anymore?

No, passcodes are still here to stay. For one thing, you need a way back into your iPhone if you lose a finger (or cut it in the wrong spot) or break the sensor. But, effectively, you won’t need to use your passcode day to day. We’ll have to see how Apple handles alternate recovery options; I suspect you will still use a recovery passcode.

Since you won' t be using it for months (as you would normally use the fingerprint) you'll risk forgetting it, so you will jolt it down on a post-it stored in a handy place, and access to the device will be as-easy-as-it-was-before (or even easier) for the "bad guys".

jaclaz

Edited September 21, 2013 by jaclaz

[TELVM]

The Death of the Windows Desktop. It's dead, Jim ( Thurrott 2013-09-17 )

Every time I mention the possibility that Microsoft might kill off the Windows desktop, I get pushback from IT admins, power users, developers, and anyone else who currently relies on complex desktop applications ...

... If you were to strip away its Metro accoutrements—something an alarming number of users seem quite interested in doing ...

... The real reason the desktop is heading into oblivion—is in fact "dead platform walking"—is that it is no longer a vital, viable platform for legitimate developers ...

... those silly little tools that make Windows 8 look and work more like Windows 7 ...

[jaclaz]

OT SCOOP!

Apple considers running a bunch of queries against their financial database to create detailed reports "a herculean effort":

http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/2013/09/articles/case-summaries/citing-proportionality-court-concludes-it-would-be-senseless-to-require-plaintiff-to-go-to-great-lengths-to-produce-evidence-defendants-are-able-to-do-without/

The Samsung Defendants (“Samsung”) sought the production of several categories of financial information. Although Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) maintained financial databases and did not deny that the requested information was relevant, it asserted that “it [did] not have reports of the nature Samsung would like and that only a herculean effort could produce even a subset of the reports demanded.”

There must be some gaps in current technology, on one side there are peeps capable of looking at you every time you breath, listen to anything you say and read everything you write, and on the other someone considering extracting data from their own financial databases an ordeal.

jaclaz

[FiveAcres]

You know, in my last job, I used to run ad-hoc reports for my manager. They generally required a few sql queries (careful with the joins!) dumped out to flat files and then I got to work with Perl (originally awk) and produced accurate though not necessarily pretty reports. Of course, I understood my databases, which had been designed by some fairly clever people.

[jaclaz]

They generally required a few sql queries (careful with the joins!) ...

Yes, and :

http://xkcd.com/327/

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

I also have seen the installer place Chrome's user profile, a deep nesting of subfolders underneath Windows\System32\Config, a folder structure formerly reserved for the registry and supposedly sacred. On Vista/7 the same version went to an even deeper cobweb under \Users.

I haven't installed it myself in a while but I am getting PC's with malware from owners who only used Chrome and were likely tricked by Google's over-eager propensity to blur the lines between ads and content. I have nothing concrete yet, too busy, no screenshots etc, I'm just cleaning the things and giving them back and telling them to use Opera or Firefox at the moment. I just see a bit of a conflict of interest for Google having a web browser and also curating ads. It's almost as bad as Microsoft in this arena really.

My disdain for them only grew when Opera turned traitor and adopted it's codebase, so you can mark me down as ambivalent, to be kind.

It's entirely possible though that some of these other Chromium browsers might do it right. I just doubt that I will ever use one.

Thanks for the scoop, Charlotte.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Google's proprietary AdID may replace third-party tracking cookies ( TechSpot 2013-09-18 )

Google rumored to replace cookies with anonymous identifier for ad tracking ( NeoWin 2013-09-18 )

Google may be planning to finally ditch the dreaded cookies that are a part of most web browsers in favor of a new method to track the activities of Internet users. USAToday reports, via unnamed sources, that the proposed replacement for cookies would be an anonymous identifier, or AdID.

Out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. Sorry, I'll pass.

Yeah, the headline I saw sounded exciting, but when I read the details it turns out to be even worse than cookies.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Mike Anderson, chief technology officer of Tealium, a company that helps advertisers track users, says the online ad industry currently has only a 30%-60% accuracy rate for identifying a user because many cookies "cannot talk to one another." Google's new system could improve upon that, allowing companies to create even more detailed portraits.

[...]

The possibility of Google controlling more personal data, on top of data it already collects from its Gmail service, raises new questions of security, some experts say.

"What happens when a three-letter agency says [to Google], 'Give me all the data you're handling'? That data will be available on a very large scale," said Giovanni Vigna, founder and chief technology officer of Lastline, a security firm.

Ultimately, he said, "you're trusting Google not to be evil with your tracking details."

[emphasis added]

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

The Death of the Windows Desktop. It's dead, Jim ( Thurrott 2013-09-17 )

Every time I mention the possibility that Microsoft might kill off the Windows desktop, I get pushback from IT admins, power users, developers, and anyone else who currently relies on complex desktop applications ...

... If you were to strip away its Metro accoutrements—something an alarming number of users seem quite interested in doing ...

... The real reason the desktop is heading into oblivion—is in fact "dead platform walking"—is that it is no longer a vital, viable platform for legitimate developers ...

... those silly little tools that make Windows 8 look and work more like Windows 7 ...

Great images! Did you create them yourself? Good research work even if you "only" found them somehow.

Oh, and Thurrott's latest seems to suggest that he's done a (another) 180-degree turn. Lately he'd been pretty down on Metro in the Windows Weekly podcasts (as I've quoted), but this marks a return to advocacy for what we might call the televisation of the PC...

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

In privacy news -- I'm not sure if we covered this story already, but it's so Kafkaesque that I had to (re)mention it:

Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service

The saga of Lavabit founder Ladar Levison is getting even more ridiculous, as he explains that the government has threatened him with criminal charges for his decision to shut down the business, rather than agree to some mysterious court order. The feds are apparently arguing that the act of shutting down the business, itself, was a violation of the order:..

[...]

"Levison stressed that he has complied with 'upwards of two dozen court orders' for information in the past that were targeted at 'specific users' and that "I never had a problem with that." But without disclosing details, he suggested that the order he received more recently was markedly different, requiring him to cooperate in broadly based surveillance that would scoop up information about all the users of his service. He likened the demands to a requirement to install a tap on his telephone."

[...]

[emphasis in original]

So it's no longer enough to cease providing customers a measure of privacy, you have to actively collaborate with the official Peeping Toms, or else...

As they say, it was an offer he couldn't refuse...

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Thieves won't be able to sever your finger to unlock the iPhone 5S ( TechSpot 2013-09-17 )

After all, this wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened. Years ago, a man lost his finger to a gang of Malaysian car thieves who were trying to start his fingerprint-secured Mercedes S-class sedan.

A secondary concern is that if fingerprint validation becomes the industry standard, then once yours is stolen, theres nothing you can really do about it. At least with a passcode, you can just make a new one after its been compromised; an option that clearly doesnt exist with personal body parts.

[...]

Sebastien Taveau, chief technology officer at fingerprint sensor provider Validity Sensors, explained to Mashable, The technology is built in a way that the image has to be taken from a live finger. No one in biometrics wants to talk about cut fingers and dead bodies, but at the end of the day we are still asked to remove the fears of consumers and make sure they understand that a severed finger will not work.

Well I still don't like it. Your fingerprint will probably be stored somewhere ( well unless they just store a hash and recalculate it each time you press it, but I gotta think this will be high CPU cost ). It is surely inevitable that if they are stored they will be copied. And there will be no need to cut off a finger if you can just 3D print a small mockup that is good enough to wear like a glove. I predict that this will become a boon to criminals in the near future when they get to wear other people's fingerprints for day-to-day activities and even crime.

Actually we don't even have to worry about the biometrics in iPhones at all. All they need to do is collect any of the millions of already existing fingerprint photos all over the world, many are already online, and write some software that will convert them to 3D printer source files and voilà! Long-dead people will be resurrected and be committing crimes all over the world. Perhaps the entire concept of fingerprints is about to be removed from all possible use of unique identification. The so-called benefit-of-the-doubt will need to be considered.

Charlotte, you are a prophet... and it didn't even take that long for your prediction to come true:

German group claims to have hacked Apple iPhone fingerprint scanner

The group said they targeted Touch ID to knock down reports about its "marvels," which suggested it would be difficult to crack.

"Fingerprints should not be used to secure anything. You leave them everywhere, and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints," a hacker named Starbug was quoted as saying on the CCC's site.

The group said it defeated Touch ID by photographing the fingerprint of an iPhone's user, then printing it on to a transparent sheet, which it used to create a mold for a "fake finger."

CCC said similar processes have been used to crack "the vast majority" of fingerprint sensors on the market.

[emphasis added]

That TechSpot headline should be changed to read:

Thieves won't be able need to sever your finger to unlock the iPhone 5S

From the comments section, one bit of oft-neglected wisdom for our "mobile age":

you shouldn't be putting your life in an equipment that you can easily carries around.

--JorgeA