Viewing profile — chuckup

Your story on thenextweb was excellent - it's a complex story and you managed to explain it all very well. http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/08/12/lenovo-used-a-hidde...

I would just add, it took them nearly 4 years to add these guidelines! >November 29, 2011 First publication >July 8, 2015, 2015 Revision to include security guidance and requiremen…

tl;dr version (since this blew up on Reddit and there's lots of stuff to digest) * in Windows 8+ any PC vendor can include an .EXE in Firmware/BIOS, and Windows will look for this …

I hope Roel Schouwenberg does a writeup about this. If you're wondering what this is about, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10039870

Wow, nice find! Also, I see Microsoft has updated that document in the last two weeks, apparently due to Lenovo's use of it. http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2…

I would be interested to see if any other manufacturers are doing this as well. You can easily check: if a file called wpbbin.exe is in your windows\system32 directory, that means …

Very interesting, thanks for that link. "If LSE is not enabled, it will not be shown under the “Security” tab in the system BIOS and the user is not affected" FYI, This was not tru…

No - see my reply to the Ars thread. Windows 8 introduced an "official" way to do this called "Windows Platform Binary Table". Every time Windows boots, it checks your ACPI table f…

I just replied to the Ars thread - it's even stranger. Windows 8 and up have an officially Microsoft sanctioned way of letting manufacturers load software through Firmware, called …

There is no setting I can see to opt-out of what the Lenovo is doing. It's not an anti-theft software, it's software that makes popups appear, asking you to install their software.…

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this …

> every civilization must regard every other civilization as an existential threat I've wondered about this! If "the singularity" is something that really can happen, then perhaps …

She then added "full disclosure. I'm not proud, I poured a drink on him. It became about that." http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2015/03/07/former-google-e...

My first thought: here's another Google offering they won't promote, and will discontinue in a year or two. Why bother? It reminds me of the "compare CD rates" page they had - I tr…

I don't think you need to buy them (unless you want to gamble on their value going up) - just be willing to accept them as payment in the future. As more people see they can easily…

Speaking of large gaps between primes - There is a Bitcoin clone recently released called "Gapcoin" which replaces the SHA256 hash-breaking with finding large prime gaps. It seems …

someone pasted it here - http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2q0jb4/why_bitcoins...

Add some ANSI color, a message board section, stir, and you've got a BBS! k-rad!

This might sound corny, but you are my favorite gadfly. I've seen many posts from you over the years on slashdot and HN pointing out flaws with things I love such as python, and no…

I think even more interesting is the idea of "colored coins" that represent actual items. I'd start playing Magic: The Gathering again if the digital cards I bought were colored co…

> Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. True, but now with Bitcoin a teen can do work for pay over the internet (I assume minors cannot easily get a…

This is great news. I've always thought teenagers are the biggest market for bitcoin, they're less likely to have a bank/credit card. Knowing you can now exchange bitcoin for Xbox …

And what if the sender does not send the key? Or, when you use the key, you find out it is just a blob of zeros? (Or, the other way around: receiver lies and says that the sender d…