Showing 21 - 30 of 31
New camera is weighing on my mind
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/09/2014
» I've had it for a while now so I finally decided to upgrade my SLR camera. After some research I decided on a Nikon D5300. Nikon, because that's the brand of the lenses and other camera accessories I already own; and the D5300 because it's lightweight and has all the latest features found in mid-range models. If I was going to match my old D200 I probably would've gone for the D7100 which has more knobs that I will ever need and is also a lot heavier.
Do I really need my new Galaxy S5?
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/08/2014
» I've had the Galaxy S5 for some time now and so far the experience has been a pleasant one. One of my first add-ons was a 0.3mm glass screen protector that when compared to an unadorned S5 provides better clarity and viewability outside. I always use a case of some kind just in case I drop the unit so the combination should protect my device from standard heights, I hope.
All hail Commodore Warhol
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/05/2014
» Back in the day, the Commodore Amiga was a truly superior machine. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recently found a number of unknown works by the artist on Amiga floppy disks dating from 1985, including versions of the famous Campbell’s Soup Cans. It is a testament to the Amiga’s abilities that an artist like Warhol would produce art on the device.
Heartbleed causing heartache
Life, James Hein, Published on 23/04/2014
» One of the hottest topics in the computing world over the past two weeks has been a problem with the security of OpenSSL named Heartbleed. The short version is that this popular security layer has had a bug for the last couple of years that allowed people to grab not only information from a computer, but also passwords and decryption keys. The fix is to go to the OpenSSL site download and apply the latest version, anything past 1.0.1f, from here, www.openssl.org/related/binaries.html. If your Android phone is 4.1.x, then download a Heartbleed detector from the Play Store and check your exposure. For the technically minded, the problem is a missing bounds check so that the attacker can grab 64KB of memory. There are code samples on the net if you want more details. I suspect that system administrators have been busy all over the world patching their machines, generating new public and private keys and notifying all users to change their passwords on affected systems. I also suspect that there will be administrators and users who will not take any steps at all, either due to laziness or hubris. There is strong evidence that you should change all your important passwords at places like banks.
Passing the hacker hat
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/04/2014
» A “black hat” is a skilled hacker who tends to lurk in the background, rarely gets caught and is a master at breaking into systems, programs and data. These people have been represented in movies and are usually considered shady characters. There are, of course, rewards in being skilled in this field — both monetarily and in terms of underground notoriety — but there are also risks, such as retaliation from those that have been hacked and the continual threat of government agencies tracking them down. Lesser known but becoming more so are those called “grey hats”, who often straddle the line of legality. And as a recent conference showed, you can be rewarded for finding vulnerabilities in operating systems and application codes. There is a growing market for skilled grey hats, who are used to find holes in social media platforms and all manner of other products, ranging from smartphones to major systems. Government departments will even hire ex-black hats to secure their systems against attack. Major corporations do the same thing. So if you are a budding young hacker, you can potentially make up to $250,000 (8 million baht) if you find a zero-day problem in iOS or around half that for a Windows problem. The zero-day issue was recently represented in an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles.
How safe is your data?
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/02/2014
» Researchers from Rutgers University have developed a smartphone tool that tracks how often applications track them. The app essentially monitors other applications and logs when they get location data and transmits it. The results indicated that lots of applications, sometimes those where it was not expected, grabbed location data and passed it along. Some apps will notify the user but the research found that others are not so forthcoming. The researchers concluded that Android permissions are not an effective method for disclosing and consenting for location data access. They also found that the flashing GPS icon is largely ignored or not registered by users. You have been warned. You can find the full report here: http://bit.ly/NrTyQN
Goodies galore unveiled at Nevada show
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/01/2014
» As I write this, CES _ the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas _ is under way with its displays of awesome gadgets. Nvidia announced a 192-core mobile processor that comes in 32-bit ARM format, or a 64-bit version. Yes, you read that correctly: 192-core. There's lots more from all the usual suspects, but so far the release of the Galaxy S5 hasn't been announced. That's expected next month.
Court's Apple ruling sure to be appealed
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/09/2012
» The big news in the mobile-phone and tablet marketplace is the US-centric Apple win against Samsung in the United States. Many people regard this decision as ridiculous and think that it highlights how mercenary and capitalist Apple has become.
If they didn't want it then, why would they want it now?
Database, James Hein, Published on 08/09/2010
» A number of companies are now readying their iPad challenger. But why? What has changed in the past 10 years to suggest people who once rejected pen or touchscreen computing will now embrace it?
The right to know - and to condemn to death
Database, James Hein, Published on 18/08/2010
» The posting of secret communications in the Afghan theatre of operations is a case of "the people have a right to know" and technology being used the wrong way.