Thanks for the clarifications. It's interesting what you say about iCloud backups. I could tell she was getting frustrated with all the questions and just wanted to use the thing, so perhaps she never activated it. It did import get contracts though.

Having said that, surely you don't need to back your apps up. On Android when you log in they obviously have a list of what apps you bought or installed so the Play app just downloads the compatible ones for your new device.

The main impression I got is that the home button is overworked. When she couldn't see how to go back she just went to the home screen and reopened the app. There was a huge amount of app switching just to handle things like IM messages, and because there is no chronological history when you are finished responding you don't just go back to the original app you were in. I take your point about it being simple, but it seems like it's too simple. Almost insulting to the user.

During setup she was asked which country she was in. Yesterday i noticed some shops selling of piles of third party cables incredibly cheap because they didn't work after the latest update. She wanted a spare for charging and the Apple ones are rather expensive and don't come in really short (100mm) or long versions. It seems like you can't just buy a peripheral or a accessory in confidence because a software update might break it. We feel locked in to an expensive revenue stream.

One other interesting thing I noticed. She installed an alternative app store almost immediately. It just links back to the Apple app store, but she said it was easier to find the things she wanted on. It looked like you could watch TV and movies as well as download apps.

I agree with your points.

I also agree that, regardless of whether disabling VT-d keeps NSA out of AMT (or equivalent) or if they have some personal back door associated with it, shutting it down is still very useful: It closes this barn door to all the other bad guys who don't have any "extras" and use it as you describe.

If you are securing commercial infrastructure, you should use VPN with individual public-key authentication anyways. A Wi-Fi password is access control, not secrecy. But I agree that full disk encryption is a very good idea anyways, for this and a number of other reasons.

Indeed. The available evidence suggests the NSA is not even trying to stop any attacks or rather is trying hard to not stop them. That would be logical for the to do: They benefit from every attack by more funding and power. Basically the whole thing is a scam, and the perpetrators hope nobody finds out they have very different goals from their proclaimed ones.

Thank you.

I did Philosophy, yes, which is, incidentally, a science. Incidentally it is the source of what science is, as it is the only scientific discipline that can do that kind of introspection. Your claim of what science is does it a disservice, there is much more to it. What you describe is just the experimental method. It is not universally applicable and there is far more to science. Incidentally, if you could read, you would have seen that I called my example, a "hypothesis", very, very clearly. And it is a ridiculous one at best. (Maybe I hit one of the stupid things the ID idiots claim by accident. No intent here, I just made up something no sane person would believe...)

And no, I never discarded Evolution as "just" a theory. It is a theory however, not a truth, the distinction is important and does not actually reduce its worth. In fact, calling it more than a theory is unscientific, because then we are deep in "belief" territory. Your ad Hominem is completely misplaced. I have high respect for the scientific method and I happen to be a scientist.

Oh, limited runs of Evolution can be observed, I do not dispute that. But that is not what this discussion is about. The question is what the degrees of freedom are. In all probability (judging from scientific history), there are other factors at work as well, we just have not identified them yet. The question is how strong they are for the situation at hand.

It does not need to be stored encrypted either. Not at all. Your attacker model is completely unrealistic, as you assume an attacker with root access. Against that one you have no chance anyways. Classical amateur-level risk analysis that completely misses the point.

Indeed. These amateur "security experts" are almost universally incapable of analyzing or even seeing the surrounding situation. What comes out is a "risk analysis" that has no connection to reality.

It is pointless for the situation at hand. You are ignoring the work-flow here. Compare both for a typical situation.

Yea, typical incompetent IT security wannabe. Pathetic, but all too common.

I hate people that do not read what I wrote. Incidentally, I could not care less what you hate, especially when it has no relation to what I just wrote.

Your rant is completely unrelated to the problem at hand, and if "the password is staring them straight in the face" they already have root access here and can do whatever they want, including things like starting WiFi automatically. So, no, encryption passwords is not always pointless, but it is almost always the wrong solution, and it very much is here. Your risk management sucks, as it completely mis-analyses the situation. But that is in line with your ego being over-inflated. My take is that you have nothing worthwhile to contribute, but feel a compulsion to give your opinion anyways.

You are talking about criteria for an one-night-stand, not for a relationship or for founding a family. Maybe that is the reason so few relationships keep these days: Wrong selection criteria.

I think the problem is more that these people have a complete unrealistic self-image. For tech people, you can observe that regularly in forums: The ones claiming the highest authority are typically somewhere from clueless to mediocre. I think this is the same effect at work. On the plus side, this means far less likelihood of these idiots reproducing, so I do not believe "fixing" this is desirable.