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Comment Re:"though it is unclear when he left" (Score 1) 145

by markyosti (#39746657) Attached to: Hacker Posts Details of 3 Million Iranian Bank Accounts

I personally tend not to get into this sort of conversations as all the sources I personally have - from telly to the internet, give me information that is either 3rd, 4th hand or 5th hand, or that I have troubles considering authoritative. Buzz and word of mouth in the internet era is also not very reliable, see the many hoaxes we have...

I have opinions, but I consider them speculations at best based on the input I got, but I hardly ever feel like arguing about them, as... I think the foundations are too fragile for me to think it's worth trying to change other people's mind or to think that I am right (or wrong).

This would probably change if I had friends who could recount their experiences or provide first hand information.

Comment What will this mean in practice? (Score 1) 66

by markyosti (#39735991) Attached to: HP To Certify Ubuntu 12.04 LTS For Its Proliant Servers

I'm curious to see if this will change anything in practice.

In the past, I've bought several pieces of hardware that were supposedly certified or supported for , to only discover later that no, IPMI didn't really work in linux, you could only get the temperature out of half the sensors, or to get the full features out of ACPI / TPM / crypto chip or to get things to work you had to install shady 3rd party drivers that hadn't really been updated until 5 versions ago of the linux kernel. Ah! and don't run that command or use that feature, otherwise for some unknown reason the system freezes, or start returning buggy numbers.

I don't have any recent experience with HP - but will they provide updated drivers if it doesn't work on Ubuntu? Will they clearly specify on their website what works and what doesn't? how difficult will be to replace a component just because a feature I needed doesn't work on linux?

I don't see "being ceritified" or "being supported" as a boolean, it's more like a grey area for which you have to clearly define boundaries for it to have any meaning. The end result is that I always have to spend a few hours to research a new piece of hardware before I'm comfortable buying it, and even so... what looks good on paper doesn't turn out to be good in practice.

(writing from a lenovo laptop with an intel 5350 wireless adapter, supported in linux, that has had a firmware bug that would cause the wireless to hang from time to time on 802.11n networks...)
Security

Submission + - Need a VPN to secure your surfing? Really? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by markyosti
markyosti writes: There seems to be a trend lately of buying and using VPN services to protect your privacy online and secure your connections, not just to connect to your office or home service. But... is this really necessary? Is this a good idea? Does it protect against any real threat? The article presents how a VPN works in simple words, and tries to debunk some of the myths around VPNs. It is not exhaustive, much more could be said, but what is your opinion? What do you think?
Twitter

Submission + - Twitter Gives Power To Developers With Innovator Patent Agreement (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Microblogging service Twitter announced yesterday an internal patent agreement that gives engineers and designers more artistic control over their patents — allowing them to be used ‘defensively' as opposed to ‘offensively'. As many a techie will know, the industry is filled with plenty of patent infringement lawsuits — but a new policy dubbed the Innovator's Patent Agreement (IPA) vows that Twitter will not use the patents for offensive litigation purposes without first seeking permission from those responsible for developing them. "It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees' inventions in offensive litigation without their permission," Twitter stated.
Businesses

Submission + - Nokia Is Almost "Junk", Says Moody's (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Moody's rating agency pointed out that Nokia's steep decline in the Q1 of this year justifies a serious downgrade. Consequently, Nokia Corp.'s long-term rating is now at Baa3, which means a warning for investors to stay away. The situation was caused by Nokia's fall in revenue by 35 per cent. Meanwhile, Nokia's shares fell by 20 per cent, after the agency last week issued a profit warning. This critical situation for the Finnish smartphone maker could potentially get even worse if Nokia does not show signs of recovery in the following months.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Banned From Kickstarter For Being Cyberstalked (rachelmarone.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Rachel Marone has been a victim of cyberstalking for 10 years. In 2011, she had a project on Kickstarter shut down because of the high volume of spam posted in the comment section of the project. Recently, Marone's manager spoke to Kickstarter again to see how she could avoid having a new project banned if the cyberstalker showed up again. They replied, 'If there is any chance that Rachel will receive spam from a stalker on her project, she should not create one. We simply cannot allow a project to become a forum for rampant spam, as her past project became. If this happens again, we will need to discard the project and permanently suspend Rachel’s account.' On her website, Marone sums up the situation thus: 'I am being told that I cannot crowdfund because I am a stalking victim. Daniella Jaeger is sending out the message that if you are being stalked you are unwelcome on Kickstarter. With so many women being stalking targets this does not seem reasonable to me.'
Crime

Submission + - iPhone users sue AT&T for letting thieves re-activate their stolen devices (forbes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following on the heels of the FCC and U.S. mobile carriers finally announcing plans to create a national database for stolen phones, a group of iPhone users filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T on Tuesday claiming that it has aided and abetted cell phone thieves by refusing to brick stolen cell phones.

AT&T has “[made] millions of dollars in improper profits, by forcing legitimate customers, such as these Plaintiffs, to buy new cell phones, and buy new cell phone plans, while the criminals who stole the phone are able to simply walk into AT&T stories and ‘re-activate’ the devices, using different, cheap, readily-available ‘SIM’ cards,” states their complaint.

AT&T, of course, says the suit is "meritless."
Canada

Submission + - Canada Post Files Copyright Lawsuit Over Crowdsourced Postal Code Database (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Canada Post has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Geolytica, which operates GeoCoder.ca, a website that provides several geocoding services including free access to a crowdsourced compiled database of Canadian postal codes. Canada Post argues that it is the exclusive copyright holder of all Canadian postal codes and claims that GeoCoder appropriated the database and made unauthorized reproductions. GeoCoder compiled the postal code database by using crowdsource techniques without any reliance on Canada Post's database and argues that no copyright in postal codes and no infringement.

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