Nope. USB operates at a lower level than the OS. USB is capable of talking to other pieces of hardware without the OS's involvement (or knowledge). USB even has Direct Memory Access.

Yes it is. Many OSes even cooperate by providing APIs for forensic/diagnostic/recovery tools that operate via USB.

Most oses will not autoexec something on a valid USB stick. The BIOS will though. And just because something is connected via USB doesn't mean it has to tell the truth about what it is. The stick could present as a drive AND a keyboard, with the keyboard inputting commands to run a file on the drive.

The USB can be used to dump memory (and keys) using various methods, the simplest but least effective method is the Cold Boot Attack. DMA Attacks have become more straightforward with USB 3.1 as the controller now has DMA instead of just the PCI it is connected to.

How long before Zeynep comes out and says that the leaks are fake / inaccurate / technically void and urges the public to keep using WhatsApp; Calling those who stop using it idiots, fools, traitors, and scum.

Will she denounce Fox for reporting on it like she denounced The Guardian. You betcha.

A spook in geeks clothing.

You are completely on point.

Tech needs a lot more old-schoolers. I hope that your recovery goes well and they you are able to contribute more.

Please never give up your oft insightful and occasionally controversial commentary as it adds a lot to Slashdot and helps drown out the fanbois and zealots.

A government, particularly one that is elected by the people, exists for the purpose of managing systems to improve the entities that they are governing and to protect the constituents.

Whether or not Kim Dotcom is likely innocent or guilty, this finding will neither improve NZ and completely fails in protecting at least one of its' citizens.

Despite any extradition treaty, NZ must protect their citizens.

Australia is guilty of similar neglect with the lack of assistance to Assange. Our government does not represent Australia or Australians and all policies are either self-serving or to the benefit of another nation (US & UK). There is continuous dumbing-down of political matters to the extent that constituents no longer identify treason when it is shoved in their face.

Oracle profit from Java Certification, Java Support, and Proprietary Java Extensions. While you may not use any of these, people working with your code in the future will likely require one or all of them.

The reasons for dumping Java are the same reasons for dumping VB6: Ethics, Pushing bad coding practices, Slow, Buggy, Increasing hostility toward customers, Out-dated.

At the time of the post, the summary was different. I read it through twice trying to decipher the situation. It has been edited without a note.

The only things holding back tech, including AI, are patents and laws. The funny thing is AI is unlikely to give a second thought about either as the consequences are meaningless.

Those languages have indeed been around longer, but they don't have the same features. For starters, neither meet conditions b, c, or d. Neither of those languages are capable of system programming or have a secure web engine focus. Perl, and increasingly Ruby and Python have a strong presence for web apps but to the best of my knowledge have never been used (for good reason) for a web browser or web layout engine.

Additionally, none allow concurrent computing. With modern internet connections, the bottleneck is often at rendering. Concurrent computing should speed this up by at least an order of magnitude.

Servo, a prototype, has been in testing for some time with very promising results. This project is also headed up by Mozilla.