124 karma · joined October 11, 2016
Especially if it's intermittent or simply passive. Then you could have an embedded issue for years and never know (I've long suspected that this could eventually be a problem for Defense companies)
Not quite as bad, but still pretty weak.
End of freaking story. If you don't, and/or you can't throw a fab plant at it, your options are limited. You can read all the docs on the open CPU stuff (as far as that goes), you can literally do everything from scratch, but unless you're a Nation State or a massive company, you're pretty much wasting your time.
/edit: I don't mean this as a criticism of your writeup (where you basically state the same thing), or even some of your other comments (where you state much the same thing). It's literally an issue where there are VERY few people in the entire world capable of doing cutting edge processor design, coding, and implementation. They cost phenomenal amounts of money, and even with the money, people, and the best of intentions - a motivated nation state actor can muck things up.
The only real defense we have, as regular people, is to basically see if anything we own is misbehaving. Even that is a specialized skill set and time investment beyond what most folks are interested in committing.
I think it's easier to do deep packet inspection if you're that concerned, honestly.
Good tips on time mgmt though, I guess
However, they used to really flaunt their BSD roots on OSX, but seem to do very little to give back in the form of code, money, or even PR for that matter.
Here's an example of that: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Da...
But now they've even removed any mention of this, and allowed projects like OpenDarwin and such to just plain die. I think it's pretty poor behavior from a company that's SO involved in intellectual property rights to just take something as valuable as a complete kernel and userland (not GUI) and then just sweep it under the carpet because no laws require them to do otherwise.
Puts a really bad taste in my mouth to see such important work treated like that. I'd have expected it from IBM, but not from Apple.
I was really disappointed in how Apple treated BSD, but I am stupid and naive. I would have expected that from IBM though.
Due for a hardware refresh soon, and I will obviously be trying it again :)
Or, improved BSD, and avoided all that GPL stuff if they wanted.
I would actually argue that security doesn't depend on any one product, but instead a mindset, methodology, and toolbox. Defense in depth, etc.
"So LSM stays in. No ifs, buts, maybes or anything else. When I see the security people making sane arguments and agreeing on something, that will change. Quite frankly, I expect hell to freeze over before that happens, and pigs will be nesting in trees. But hey, I can hope."
He's typically very critical of security-related changes unless they are a massive improvement. I think characterizing him as "functionality over security" is entirely fair. He's not even wrong necessarily.
The point is - it's about the only way to do a real actual code audit on what your processor is doing.
I use it for my router, but my desktop is Linux (Steam. It's because of Steam. I'll be totally honest :D )
You could go into that rabbit hole. I'd recommend against it... I lost days reading all the docs and playing with this
OSX is right behind it, with a culture of laxness that undoes most of the benefits the designers tried to give them.
He places functionality over security, and assumes security will just 'happen' with code quality. I tend to disagree - but I am typing this from a Linux box, not an OpenBSD box. Because Linux is more functional as a desktop - the irony there isn't lost on me.
Then of course, I realized that by "Popular" he meant Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux.
Linux of course, we all know is a security mess because Torvalds refuses to deal with security issues.
Upside - the kickstand is awesome, the microSD reader is in a good spot, the battery life is ok, the speakers are ok, the USB3 is in a good spot.
The downside. That keyboard is the worst. You are 100% right. I've typed many thousands of words on it now, and while it's comfortable, it's only good on a desk or desk-type surface. Try it on a lap, and it's basically worthless (like the kickstand).
The pen is trash. The pen stopped working, was replaced, stopped working, was replaced, stopped again (and has been clipped to my desk since). The touchscreen goes out regularly. The wifi is crappy, constantly bouncing. The bandwidth to the microSD is terrible (it's a USB device internally, and slow). The power adapter is a good idea, but I have no idea what they were thinking. If it's cable up, it heats up at the point where it bends. If it's cable-down, it bends super sharply at the desk and heats up there. The light is always white, so no charging feedback. The USB port on the power adapter can't charge anything, including a phone, while the surface is on. Otherwise it keeps dropping out and shows 'plugged in, battery' back and forth every few seconds.
So yeah - spare me another POS like this.