Hacker News Reader

SmileyRedBallon Websites have been quietly hacking iPhones for years, says Google

How did this malware compromise the iPhone in the first place. Did Apple insert a backdoor for the spooks that was discovered by a third party. It wouldn't be the first time as Google is reported to have inserted a government backdoor that was subsequently used by the Chinese.

https://support.google.com/mail/forum/AAAAK7un8RUqYupi59QYXM...

https://web.archive.org/web/20190322185231/http://edition.cn...

SmileyRedBallon Apple expands parts access to more independent repair businesses

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/apple-offers-customer...

“There is no cost to join Apple’s independent repair program. To qualify for the new program, businesses need to have an Apple-certified technician who can perform the repairs. The process for certification is simple and free of charge. To learn more and apply, visit support.apple.com/irp-program.”

https://support.apple.com/irp-progra

“Becoming certified to repair Apple products requires passing exams through an online Authorized Testing Center. Certifications are updated on a per product basis annually. The certification exam fees are waived for businesses that have been approved to be an Independent Repair Provider.

Detailed information about Apple Certifications preparatory courses and exams can be found here.”

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205332

“To pass these exams, you need to have access to the training in ATLAS.”

“How do I pay for the exams? When you register for the certification exams, you can pay with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.”

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT206048

“To access ATLAS, you need to have an active Global Service Exchange (GSX) account or buy AppleCare Technician Training.”

SmileyRedBallon Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity

@docker_up: "Shareholders definitely have a great chance to sue Musk"

Your concern for the shareholders is duely noted :]

SmileyRedBallon Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity

The full title is ‘“HE’S FULL OF SHIT”: HOW ELON MUSK FOOLED INVESTORS, BILKED TAXPAYERS, AND GAMBLED TESLA TO SAVE SOLARCITY’. Makes me wonder are we in the middle of yet another Tesla shorting cycle. Buy some shorts, trash Tesla in the media, wait for stock to drop, then cashout.

SmileyRedBallon Tales of Science and Fiction

Stranger then Fiction, you couldn't make it up, no one would believe it:

“This tendency towards pseudoreligiosity surfaces most clearly in Campbell’s relation with that mountebank and founder of exploitative cults, Hubbard”

L. Ron Hubbard had a talent for grifting people. Later on he joined Jack Parsons magical order 'Ordo Templi Orientis'. At Parsons Pasadena mansion, Hubbard and Parsons engaged in the occult task of raising a moonchild, before Hubbard ran off with Parsons money, girlfriend and yacht. There's a fictionalized version on 'CBS All Access' called "Strange Angel". Hubbard turns up at the end of season 2.

SmileyRedBallon Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

@NeedMoreTea: “What if your friend sees no value in their body after they're done with it” ..

Yea, why not just dip the corpse in silicone epoxy, mount it on a plinth and put it on display. Oh wait, someone else has already thought of that.

https://bodyworlds.com/city/london/

“The first Matrix I designed was .. [a] monumental failure .. Thus, I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature.”

SmileyRedBallon Locked Tesla stolen in 30 seconds in London with fob relay trick

> Needs some '2FA', like actually putting the key in the ignition. :) Or a tiny motion sensor in the key, if it's still then don't authenticate.

Or use infrared to unlock the car, that requires you to stand next to the car and therefore shielding the device from any leakage :]

SmileyRedBallon Tesla Has Failed Massively as a Public Company

Would being continously shorted by Wall Street have anything to do with this? For example, take yet another short position in Tesla and then trash it in the financial press, like this article is doing.

It is curious that since 2013 Tesla sales have jumped from approx 20,000 per year to approx 30,000 per month and yet the stock price hasn't shown an equivalent increase. If I were of a cynical nature I would suspect the rest of the US car industry (what's left of it) of punishing Musk for being sucessfull. Despite this, an increase of 1,889 percent on an initial investment in the IPO in 2010 is not too bad.

SmileyRedBallon Pentagon conducts first test of previously banned missile

“The U.S. military has conducted a flight test of a type of missile banned for more than 30 years by a treaty that both the United States and Russia abandoned this month, the Pentagon said”.

No not all all, the US arbitrarily abandoned the treaty. It's to do with the US trying to distract from economic and social problems at home by picking a fight with someone, anyone.

SmileyRedBallon Down the Rabbit-Hole

2002 is calling and wants it's shatter attack back.

“Shatter Attacks - How to break Windows.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20060904080018/http://security.t...

SmileyRedBallon Down the Rabbit-Hole

> there will be always more to find in a complex legacy protocol like this ..

Wouldn't it be simpler to drop in a CTF replacement unless the ability to read/write to any window, from any other session is generic to Windows.

SmileyRedBallon Microsoft Screws Azure Customers and Its Own Advocates Alike

‘Well this article doesn't seem very good. Not least because the author seems perfectly willing to not actually explain the detail, and then jump to conclusions .. some customers buy "on-premises licenses" without mobility rights, and MSFT used to let them use those licenses on outsourced hardware’

Seems perfectly clear to me:

“Microsoft has introduced a preview of Azure Dedicated Host, which provides a physical server hosted on Azure and not shared with other customers.”, ref

Microsoft has introduced it's own dedicated hardware.

“Alongside this new service, the company has made licensing changes that will make Microsoft software more expensive for some customers of AWS, Google and Alibaba.”, ref

And made it more expensive for “running Windows Server on any cloud that isn’t Azure”.

ref: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/05/microsoft_licensing...

SmileyRedBallon Dark Matter from Scalar Field Fluctuations

“Kepler’s forgotten ideas about symmetry help explain spiral galaxies without the need for dark matter – new research”

https://theconversation.com/keplers-forgotten-ideas-about-sy...

SmileyRedBallon Facebook has been granted patent on shadow banning

allana, your comment has been voted into invisibility :]

SmileyRedBallon Microsoft and Samsung partner to bridge Android and Windows closer together

Doesn't Microsoft already own Android, sorry that should be Microsoft Android, that's how zdnet refers to it. Seriously though, what a way of doing “business”. Extract revenue out of Samsung through vague patent-licensing royalty claims, $1 billion in 2013, then offer to ‘partner’ with them.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-and-samsung-step-up-...

SmileyRedBallon EvilGnome: Rare Malware Spying on Linux Desktop Users

> Linux desktop remains an unpopular choice among mainstream desktop users ..

Because it's virtually to buy a computer in the shops with a Linux Desktop pre-installed. Even online Dell manages to keep a Linux Desktop computer well hidden on their website.

> .. in the beginning of July, we discovered a new, fully undetected Linux backdoor implant ..

How does this “fully undetected Linux backdoor” get onto the Desktop in the first place, without the end-user explicitly downloading and installing this Linux “implant”.

> .. We have named the implant EvilGnome, for its disguise as a Gnome extension ..

Thanking you, so the “implant” disguises itself as a Gnome extension and resides on some third-party website.

> .. The malware is currently fully undetected across all major security solutions ..

So, the defect resides in the security solutions :]

SmileyRedBallon Mauritius Leaks exposes tiny tax haven's role in vast offshore system

@JumpCrisscross: "A portfolio of stocks and bonds held in a Mauritian entity costs a few tens of U.S. dollars of extra accounting costs to do taxes on a year; a portfolio in India held by a foreigner can easily cost hundreds of dollars for an American investor to comply with."

Yea, it's got nothing to do with extracting the maximum amount of revenue out of the host country whilst managing to avoid giving anything back in taxation :]

SmileyRedBallon Cyber Incident Exposes Potential Vulnerabilities Onboard Commercial Vessels [pdf]

Not much actual technical details regarding this “significant cyber incident”. It must take a great of influence to keep the name out of the media.

SmileyRedBallon Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

> not relevant, free market, they decide to work there, or not ..

Yea they can decide to move to the next low-pay job, zero-hour contract, no benefits, wages barely pays the rent, on food stamps ..

SmileyRedBallon Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

What would it effect Bezos Net Worth to double the warehouse operatives hourly rate to $22?

SmileyRedBallon Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software

> This contains more technical information behind the 1202 alarms ..

“You also have to remember that, long before Bill Gates, we had developed a real-time multi-tasking operating system.”

“When a job was to be scheduled, a call would be made to the appropriate executive routine - sort of like a DOS call today”

edit: I thought this was hysterical, on so many levels, just imagine the scenario if Microsoft had got the contract for the AGC.