Forgot your password?

Comment: Verizon tried this in NYC (Score 5, Informative) 56

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40630259) Attached to: New York Experiments With Wi-Fi From Payphones


Comment: Re:none (Score 2) 423

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40588159) Attached to: Internet Explorer Market Share Drops To Almost 15%

Windows 8 will be a trainwreck. Too many changes for most users. The issue is windows 9 (whatever that will look like).

And everyone in Microsoft land will be so delighted that Windows 9 sucks just a bit less than Windows 8, that they won't mind the fact that the "Windows 9 Certified" program will prohibit OEM's from allowing the user to disable UEFI Secure Boot.

That way, when Windows 10 comes along, you won't have a choice.

Comment: Re:Legal framework (Score 1) 393

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40568765) Attached to: Ubuntu Lays Plans For Getting Past UEFI SecureBoot
Because that's not what Microsoft said. They said that Windows 8 certification on x86 will allow disabling UEFI (for now at least), and that Windows 8 certification on ARM requires complete Microsoft-only lockdown. It is expected that after a few years of the industry getting accustomed to Secure Boot, they will tighten the screws, and Windows 9 certification on x86 will also require Microsoft-only lockdown.

Their goal is for computers to be like smartphones, where the only operating system you are permitted to run is the one that shipped with the device.

Comment: *all* freedom of expression? (Score 1) 161

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40568541) Attached to: UN Declares Internet Freedom a Basic Right
I find this statement, considering that it came from the UN, to be somewhat suspicious. Do they really want to protect all freedom of expression? Would the UN continue to champion my freedom of speech if I blasphemed the false prophet muhammad? Or is this just one more case of the UN trying to make an Internet power grab without thinking things through?

Comment: Let the takedown happen. (Score 1) 141

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40553669) Attached to: YouTube-MP3 Ripper Creator Takes On Google
Let the takedown happen. It would be better if only smart people knew how to build their MP3 collection from YouTube, using youtube-dl and similar tools. The presence of web sites that allow anyone to do it makes the RIAA upset, and they'll hyperbribe government officials to outlaw computers that don't UEFI Secure Boot to a Trusted(tm) Microsoft(R) Operating System that only allows BingMusic(tm) to be played through TrustedEverything(tm) audio and video channels.

Comment: Betteridge's Law of Headlines (Score 1) 663

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40462013) Attached to: Are Open-Source Desktops Losing Competitiveness?

And so it is with this article. Must be a slow news day, or perhaps the slashdot editors are desperate for a few extra clicks, and they knew all the paid Microsoft shills and OSX fanbois would dutifully come out and talk about how much teh Linux desktop sux0rs.

The Linux desktop is doing just fine, thank you. Innumerable satisfied users use it every day to get things done. So quit your whining.

Comment: Chain loading from "secure" boot to libre boot (Score 2) 393

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40411259) Attached to: Ubuntu Lays Plans For Getting Past UEFI SecureBoot
From a quick read of this, it sounds like Canonical is basically trying to build a signed chain loader that will make a transition from a Microsoft-signed boot environment to a libre boot environment. Seems to me as if this will be useful not just for Ubuntu, but for pretty much anyone who wants to boot Linux on a Microsoft-encumbered computer.

If that's the case, we'll eventually start to see Debian, Mint, etc. distributions that make use of the Ubuntu boot loader to get the system up and running.

Comment: Obviously... (Score 5, Funny) 100

Clearly the decline of RIM is at the hands of Microsoft, whose Innovative(tm) Windows Phone brings consumers all of the Innovative(tm) features they've been looking for; once they had a taste of Innovative(tm) Windows Phone(tm) there was no further demand for Blackberry.

It is rumored that Apple and Google also have products in this space but they are irrelevant.

Comment: I'd buy it (Score 2) 97

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40187523) Attached to: AT&amp;T Expects Data-Only Phone Plans Within 2 Years

Comment: duh (Score 3, Interesting) 193

So the malware guys found a bunch of unpatched DSL modems with a vulnerability that allowed the resolver to be reconfigured remotely, and pointed it towards the "bad" DNS servers.

So why not just go to the "bad" DNS servers, which they now control, find out the IP addresses of the compromised modems, and use the same vulnerability to reconfigure the resolver to point back to "good" DNS servers?

Comment: Facebook has size; Google+ has substance (Score 1, Insightful) 456

by IGnatius T Foobar (#40030297) Attached to: Online Loneliness At Google+
Facebook is a mile wide but an inch deep. It's basically a whiny high school full of drama queens that happens to have half a billion people enrolled. As others have posted here already, Google+ actually delivers some substance. It's where smart people go.

The way I like to say it is: Google+ is where Facebook users go when they grow up.
