Month: October 2010

Internet Debates

You know what I find hilarious and pathetic at the same time? People who try to argue or debate but end up losing and then try to save face by saying they were just trolling. The phenomenon occurs a lot online where people will get into forum arguments that will span ten pages and finally somebody will have their argument so thoroughly destroyed that they have no recourse besides admitting defeat or using personal insults. At this time the loser will generally claim they were just trolling and actually don’t care.

It’s the ultimate out and you know you’ve won once somebody uses it on you.

Some Thoughts on the HTC G2

Yesterday I posted a mini-rant on the HTC G2. My problem is the fact that every time you reboot the phone everything written to the /system directory is undone thus preventing a permanent root solution (for now). Of course in a manner of security this concept make a ton of sense.

The great thing about rooting an Android phone is that it allows you to do far more with it (namely free tethering). Of course any exploit used to gain root privileges can be used to maliciously. Root privileges are generally gained on phones by exploiting a security flaw. Any piece of software can potentially do this. By undoing any changes to the /system directory you effectively make any system-level exploit temporary. It’s actually a pretty smart move overall. Of course it also prevents those of us willing to take the risk for easily rooting our devices.

Due to this I have a suggestion, a hardware switch. The NAND memory that the /system directory is stored in is write protected. On the Evo turning the security flag in the radio off disables this write protection. Why not have a physical hardware switch enable or disable write protection? Without social engineering or a very clever exploit there really is no method of turning off write protection via software if it’s controlled by a physical switch. Users who want to root their phones can disable write-protection and take their risks while others can be happen in the added security of a write-protection operating system. Since manufacturers don’t want to support rooted phones the switch could be covered by a “warranty void if removed” sticker to boot.

Just a thought that would make most people pretty happy.

This is My Shocked Face

Can’t say that I saw this coming… who am I kidding? I saw this from a mile away:

An estranged former member of direct action anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd alleges it ordered its own boat to be scuttled to win public sympathy.

So why do I believe Mr. Bethune over the current members of Sea Sheppard? For starters Sea Sheppard are backstabbing assholes:

Sea Shepherd distanced itself from Mr Bethune during his detention – though it later claimed this was a ploy to gain a lenient sentence.

Yes while Mr. Bethune was in jail for doing exactly what Sea Sheppard advocates they distance themselves from him. Later of course they claim it was to get him a more lenient sentence. Maybe they should have used some of that money they’ve made for their shitty T.V. show to hire Mr. Bethune a top notch lawyer instead. At least that would have shown their fellow comrade support.

If you want to fight whaling that’s fine, so long as you do it peaceably. Harassing whalers and then boarding their ship isn’t going to go over well with anybody. Hell in most of the world boarding a vessel without permission is usually treated as attempted piracy. Try doing that on a Japanese navel vessel and see how well it goes over. Of course abandoning one of your fellows after he did exactly what he was told to do is just scumbag behavior. Who would join an organization that abandons their people when it’s politically convenient?

Finally I want to close with the following because I’m an asshole:

Sea Shepherd shot to prominence as the futuristic trimaran Ady Gil pursued the Japanese whaler Shonan Maru 2 through Antarctic waters in January.

Pursued it to the bottom of the ocean. Burn!

Being Stupid Costs You

Engadget has a story about Best Buy charging customers $30.00 to apply firmware updates to PS3s. Of course if you read the comments people are claiming this is extorting customers’ ignorance. That may be true but honestly I think it’s just further proof that being stupid will cost you money.

Applying a firmware update to a PS3 is dead simple, but some people are ignorant of that. That ignorance just cost them $30.00 and hopefully they’ll learn a lesson and figure out how to update their own firmware.

Being stupid is costly so do yourself a favor and learn everything you can.

Why Owning a Car is a Good Thing

First let me shamelessly steam a status update from a friend of mine:

Apparently next week, all public transportation workers will be on strike. This means: a 45-minute walk to class every day, and perhaps no weekend trip to the Alps as was planned. >:(

On top of that my friend already purchased a pass for something like 60 euros. Although my friend is currently on vacation (thus can’t really have a car there) I thought this would still be a good time to bring up the fact that owning a vehicle just makes sense. I have several friends who don’t own a vehicle and seem Hell bent on never obtaining one.

This status update reflects why I’m such a fan of owning a vehicle. Relying on public transportation for everything means just that, you’re reliant on somebody else. If the public transportation system goes down you have no means of getting to work. Likewise if you need to go a distance away you’ll either have to find a friend who is going that way as well or sit tight and not go. Self reliance is a good thing and everybody should attempt to achieve a little bit in every major part of their life. Of course if you bring this up most people will just call you paranoid.

A Great Idea Ruined by Execution

One of the things I have despised about the iPhone from day one has been the locked down nature of the device. Google promised to provide an alternative solution that would be more open in the form of Android. Sadly ever since Androids initial release on the G1 handset manufacturers and carriers have been locking Android down more and more. It seems this locking down has gone to the next level on the new HTC G2.

When you reboot the G2 all the contents of /system are rewritten to factory defaults. This means any root acquisition is temporary until the phone is rebooted. The good folks over at XDA Developers have a thread talking about rooting the G2 and currently the issue mentioned in this post.

I must say this is a little ridiculous. It’s understandable that manufacturers don’t want to support Android devices that have been rooted. A lot can go wrong with you root a device including turning a fancy phone into an expensive paper weight. Reasons like that make a policy of voiding warranties on rooted phones likely and understandable. With that said if somebody is willing to void their warranty to root a phone they should be left to doing it.

This behavior seems to countermand one of the bigger selling points of Android which is the fact it’s not as locked down as the iPhone. Frankly as Android becomes more and more locked down I’m failing to see much reason why people should chose it over the iPhone. Currently it seems the most open phone on the market is the Palm Pre which could completely change if HP decide to remove the ability to easily activate developer mode on future devices.

Smith and Wesson Body Guard 380

One thing I love about gun shows is the vast number of different firearms on display. While strolling around the recent show at the State Fair Education Building I came across a Smith and Wesson Body Guard 380. The Body Guard 380 is Smith and Wesson’s answer to small pocket pistols such as the Ruger LCP. Being I find the LCP very convenient at times I’m always looking at other pocket pistols to compare against it. Although I don’t have trigger time behind the Body Guard 380 I did notice one fatal flaw in my opinion. The manual safety is not easy to disengage.

I can’t imagine being able to draw the gun and disengage the tiny little safety under stress. I think the problem lurks in the combination of facts that the safety is kind of stiff and very small. It doesn’t stick out much from the gun meaning you don’t have a whole lot of area to work with when trying to flip it.

4G Baby

Well it seems I now have 4G coverage at my apartment. What does that mean? It means I most likely have one more G than you!

Honestly I’m rather impressed with how quickly Sprint has been rolling out their WiMax 4G service. Compared to the rate at which other carriers are rolling out faster data services Sprint seems to be trucking right along. Of course with that said there is one thing about Sprint’s 4G service I’m not very impressed with, penetration. WiMax seems to be awful at actually penetrating buildings. I noticed this when I was at DefCon. While outside of the Riviera I had an excellent 4G signal but it dropped rather drastically once I entered any building. The deeper into the building I went the faster it dropped. From inside there were only a couple of rooms where I could actually get 4G service. This is a limitation of the spectrum being used of course but it’s still something to point out.