Jan 2010
Facebook iPhone App Creates Security Blackspot
30/01/10 11:59 Filed in: Personal | Technology
Background
Over the last few months Facebook has made quite a few major updates to amend and increase the security of a FaceBook accounts.
That was the theory.
The Problem
I accidentally found a way around the security system by using Facebook’s iPhone application. The worrying thing is that it’s actually so simple, it’s alarming how it has been missed.
Step 1: Create a list of contacts of people you suspect are on Facebook with their known email addresses (or at the very least, good guesses)
Step 2: In the Facebook application press the “Friends” button on the main menu.
Step 3: At the top right of that screen you’ll notice a “Sync” button. Press it.
The result is the screen above. Facebook searches for ANY matching profiles based upon that email address and brings back what information it can, including the profile picture. It then drops all this information into your Contacts. Along with the name, a link to the face book app (complete with profile ID) it also copied the PRIVATE profile image.
So, how do I protect myself?
Well, the answer is pretty obvious. It’s obvious and also something else that I came upon by accident.
Because I use an abstract email address for my Facebook profile, people who guess or know my personal email address still cannot find me using the iPhone application. So my suggestion to you would be to create a Yahoo / Hotmail / GMail account specifically for Facebook and don’t share it with anybody.
More Straw from BBC
26/01/10 11:58 Filed in: Personal
I’ve just read an interesting little article written by BBC’s top environmental analyst Roger Harrabin.
Now you could ask what makes Mr Harrabin so special as to be the BBC’s top expert in the field. But then you’d also have to ask what expertise he can bring to bare on this subject with an English degree and no science background.
Lets be fair, it’s just a long list of public servants who have positions of importance in scientific areas with no actual science background. Lets take Ed Milliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. So that must be coming in handy while looking at the figures put out by the CRU.
To get back on subject, the article offers a bleak forecast of climate science stating from an (unknown, undocumented and probably non-existent) Oxbridge Professor of Natural Science that; “What’s happening - how is science losing support of the public?”
As is the trend with such argument Harrabin’s answer is simple. It’s the right wing press! Polluting the minds of the populous. Yes, that’s right Mr Harribin has evoked the “you must be a fascist” argument. What’s that law called? It was mentioned on QI a few weeks back. It was the theory that in any heated argument on the internet, the longer it laster, the probability of somebody mentioning Hitler or the Nazi’s approached 1.
(I’ve seen this personally, I was in a heated debate AGAINST Eugenics and the pro-guy actually stated “You know who believed in supporting the poor, Hitler. That’s who!” At which point the BB fell apart laughing.)
Well, I don’t agree with Harrabin. I think he’s 100% wrong. It’s not that the public are easily led; it’s the opposite. I think that we’ve passed the point in society where we are going to blindly believe that Radium tonic is good for us. The fact is that we are all sick to death of having the “climate” cause rammed down our throats. Only to then discover how poor the science actually is.
What’s worse is the hypocrisy within the “green” movement. Remember Gordon Brown instructing us to live greener lives before jumping on a plane to Copenhagen to bore them all the bloody death instead. Then we have Prince Charles who once attended a climate change conference in Germany by driving his 4 tonne armoured Bentley from London to Berlin (say) at 4mpg. Only to then fly back and have his car driven back empty.
Some things to take note in Mr Harrabin’s post are the facts he’s had to include;
Now you could ask what makes Mr Harrabin so special as to be the BBC’s top expert in the field. But then you’d also have to ask what expertise he can bring to bare on this subject with an English degree and no science background.
Lets be fair, it’s just a long list of public servants who have positions of importance in scientific areas with no actual science background. Lets take Ed Milliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. So that must be coming in handy while looking at the figures put out by the CRU.
To get back on subject, the article offers a bleak forecast of climate science stating from an (unknown, undocumented and probably non-existent) Oxbridge Professor of Natural Science that; “What’s happening - how is science losing support of the public?”
As is the trend with such argument Harrabin’s answer is simple. It’s the right wing press! Polluting the minds of the populous. Yes, that’s right Mr Harribin has evoked the “you must be a fascist” argument. What’s that law called? It was mentioned on QI a few weeks back. It was the theory that in any heated argument on the internet, the longer it laster, the probability of somebody mentioning Hitler or the Nazi’s approached 1.
(I’ve seen this personally, I was in a heated debate AGAINST Eugenics and the pro-guy actually stated “You know who believed in supporting the poor, Hitler. That’s who!” At which point the BB fell apart laughing.)
Well, I don’t agree with Harrabin. I think he’s 100% wrong. It’s not that the public are easily led; it’s the opposite. I think that we’ve passed the point in society where we are going to blindly believe that Radium tonic is good for us. The fact is that we are all sick to death of having the “climate” cause rammed down our throats. Only to then discover how poor the science actually is.
What’s worse is the hypocrisy within the “green” movement. Remember Gordon Brown instructing us to live greener lives before jumping on a plane to Copenhagen to bore them all the bloody death instead. Then we have Prince Charles who once attended a climate change conference in Germany by driving his 4 tonne armoured Bentley from London to Berlin (say) at 4mpg. Only to then fly back and have his car driven back empty.
Some things to take note in Mr Harrabin’s post are the facts he’s had to include;
- That the IPCC is made up of hundreds of, and not thousands of scientists - The later being a claim often sited on the BBC website as proof of climate change. As we’ve learned from history, collective belief is not evidence of fact.
- The man-made climate change is only “widely accepted” by climate scientists and isn’t either “wholly accepted” or a “a know fact” as it often stated as the case.
Great stupid question
21/01/10 10:49 Filed in: Personal
There are some questions that are so dumb that just lift your general wellbeing. The sort of question that makes you realise, even if you do goof up some code, that there is somebody else out there who is more stupid.
Case in point. From Aria website.
A Freecom Apple Mac pre-formatted external drive gets the following question.
“If I buy this drive for my (Windows) PC, will I be able to run Mac software from it”
Answer - “No. Only if you plugged it into a Mac computer.”
Incidentally, the whole “for Mac” thing is a scam. You pay extra to have it formatted when you can do it yourself in minutes.
Case in point. From Aria website.
A Freecom Apple Mac pre-formatted external drive gets the following question.
“If I buy this drive for my (Windows) PC, will I be able to run Mac software from it”
Answer - “No. Only if you plugged it into a Mac computer.”
Incidentally, the whole “for Mac” thing is a scam. You pay extra to have it formatted when you can do it yourself in minutes.
Miserable Polce Supt Kill-Joy
14/01/10 12:16 Filed in: Personal
Just weeks after a US police officer was (quite correctly) sacked for drawing his weapon in defence during a snowball fight; Oxford police officers find themselves in line for a dressing own for sledging on riot shields.
The footage, shot on Boars Hill in Oxford, shows three police officers from Thames Valley Police having a whale of a time sledging down the hill.
To anybody watching this footage it's only a positive message and humanises the service in ways Police self promotion videos can't. Here are three individuals enjoying the snow.
However, that's not how Supt Andrew Murray sees it. His opinion is that "tobogganing on duty, on police equipment and at taxpayers expence is a very bad idea".
Well, Mr Murray, I've got a message in return for that. Using "police equipment" to assault innocent bystanders* during the G20 protests is a very bad idea. But it didn't stop that happening.
If it was a choice between unprovoked assault resulting in death and tobogganing; I'm going for the later.
Finally, nobody was killed during the escapade. Nobody was injured and it didn't affect the safety of the public. So, really; Supt Andrew Murray get a life.
The footage, shot on Boars Hill in Oxford, shows three police officers from Thames Valley Police having a whale of a time sledging down the hill.
To anybody watching this footage it's only a positive message and humanises the service in ways Police self promotion videos can't. Here are three individuals enjoying the snow.
However, that's not how Supt Andrew Murray sees it. His opinion is that "tobogganing on duty, on police equipment and at taxpayers expence is a very bad idea".
Well, Mr Murray, I've got a message in return for that. Using "police equipment" to assault innocent bystanders* during the G20 protests is a very bad idea. But it didn't stop that happening.
If it was a choice between unprovoked assault resulting in death and tobogganing; I'm going for the later.
Finally, nobody was killed during the escapade. Nobody was injured and it didn't affect the safety of the public. So, really; Supt Andrew Murray get a life.
Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 takes $bn dollars
13/01/10 16:22 Filed in: Personal | Technology
I read on the BBC news site (for want of a better description) that Activisions excellent Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 has taken $1bn so far. You might remember it took $550 million in the first five days, which is pretty good going.
The unknown written on the BBC points out that this is pretty close to movie hits Titanic ($1.8bn), not to mention Avatar.
However, we are told, direct comparisons can't be made because essentially the 'ticket' price is three times higher for the games than the films.
This is true, but all a classic case of the lack of journalism I've come to expect from the BBC these days.
Sure, it costs three times the price. But the average gaming experience (one player) is expected to be around 6-8 hours. So that's three to four times the duration of entertainment.
But the most obvious way in which you cannot compare the two is in production costs. With estimates of production costs for Avatar running from $250-280 million I find it very unlikely that Activition spent more than a tenth of that on COD6. Then you've got advertising. I'm betting that total promotion for Avatar is going to be around $50m. Making the total spend in the $300m range. Making a profit of $700m.
Meanwhile, Call of Duty 6 : Modern Warfare 2 (Manchester United 1) made $500m profit in the first week and can only have made even more as it went on.
Games like Call of Duty represent the maxim of games production in turns of production cost and values. This is a game with a cast of "known" people (if only when you see their faces). Call of Duty 5 : World At War (Average) had Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman in it for gods sake!
The unknown written on the BBC points out that this is pretty close to movie hits Titanic ($1.8bn), not to mention Avatar.
However, we are told, direct comparisons can't be made because essentially the 'ticket' price is three times higher for the games than the films.
This is true, but all a classic case of the lack of journalism I've come to expect from the BBC these days.
Sure, it costs three times the price. But the average gaming experience (one player) is expected to be around 6-8 hours. So that's three to four times the duration of entertainment.
But the most obvious way in which you cannot compare the two is in production costs. With estimates of production costs for Avatar running from $250-280 million I find it very unlikely that Activition spent more than a tenth of that on COD6. Then you've got advertising. I'm betting that total promotion for Avatar is going to be around $50m. Making the total spend in the $300m range. Making a profit of $700m.
Meanwhile, Call of Duty 6 : Modern Warfare 2 (Manchester United 1) made $500m profit in the first week and can only have made even more as it went on.
Games like Call of Duty represent the maxim of games production in turns of production cost and values. This is a game with a cast of "known" people (if only when you see their faces). Call of Duty 5 : World At War (Average) had Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman in it for gods sake!
Vertigo? Stupid bloody woman!
08/01/10 18:24 Filed in: Personal
According to Fiona Bruce, people who suffer from vertigo should look away while they televised the story of two chaps base jumping off the Burj Khalifa.
I'm not sure why having a feeling of dizziness or nausea would stop you watching the item.
Unless.... (surely not) the silly cow meant altophobia. No..! TV Presenter caught in "no real idea what they are talking about" shock?
I'm not sure why having a feeling of dizziness or nausea would stop you watching the item.
Unless.... (surely not) the silly cow meant altophobia. No..! TV Presenter caught in "no real idea what they are talking about" shock?
Tanzanite... very dangerous!
08/01/10 10:37 Filed in: Personal
Holy crap! Tanzanite should be added to the list of things that should be banned from planes (along with passengers).
Only Vicki Brown on "The Jewellery Channel" just described how "if you have blue eyes, these Tanzanite earings will literally explode in a myriad of blue and green colours".
I don't know about you, but having explosive jewellery sounds pretty dangerous.
Only Vicki Brown on "The Jewellery Channel" just described how "if you have blue eyes, these Tanzanite earings will literally explode in a myriad of blue and green colours".
I don't know about you, but having explosive jewellery sounds pretty dangerous.