[Non-political] News that makes you Laugh/Cry/Both...

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 12:43 pm

i can live just fine without NFC and wireless charging . .
a cable is always better. more stable, more secure, usually cheaper and easier as well . .
ESPECIALLY if the wireless stuff has a reach of only centimeters and so does not even offer an advantage over a CABLE that's a few centimeters long <.<

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 3:06 pm

Stahlseele wrote:i can live just fine without NFC and wireless charging . .
a cable is always better. more stable, more secure, usually cheaper and easier as well . .
ESPECIALLY if the wireless stuff has a reach of only centimeters and so does not even offer an advantage over a CABLE that's a few centimeters long <.<

A few centimeters actually enables some pretty great stuff.

One idea that comes to mind: the tabletop you plop all the stuff in your pockets down on when you get home charges the stuff you plop on it.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 3:38 pm

i have a cable always connected just for that on my desk which does the same thing. and another on my bed as well. wireless stuff is only at an advantage if the distances are too big/inconvenient to cover via cable. otherwise wireless will always lose out to wired connections.

Eikre · Post by **Eikre** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 4:00 pm

Maybe if you switched to wireless, you could use the time you save on plugging and unplugging to capitalize some of your sentences.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 4:52 pm

Stahlseele wrote:i have a cable always connected just for that on my desk which does the same thing. and another on my bed as well. wireless stuff is only at an advantage if the distances are too big/inconvenient to cover via cable. otherwise wireless will always lose out to wired connections.

I don't know about you but my family has more devices that need charging than they have outlets by the table that everyone dumps their pockets on when they get home.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:08 pm

I'm a nerd. I have more than enough outlets to charge the toys of everybody i know, even if they all were to come here at the same time <.<

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:02 pm

Koumei wrote:Oh right, the thing for instant payments, and the "BE FRIGHTENED OF TEENAGERS, YOUNG ADULTS, TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR NEIGHBOURS" show did a thing about how easy it is for ANYONE to steal your money and identity with it.

NFC transactions can be made more secure than standard card swipes, since card swipes are vulnerable to malicious merchants and modified hardware. The simple expedience of appending the transaction number to the information and then encrypting it with an asymmetric key would make all forms of interception useless, since the number would be useful for only that particular transaction.

Sadly, many payment systems don't implement encryption and your account number is sent plain text over the air.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 12:39 am

Yeah, but this show mainly exists to frighten the middle-aged. So they went on about how someone else could have their device near yours and use it to make purchases from your phone to their account without you having to do anything like authorise the actual transaction. It's a fearmongering show.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 1:00 am

Koumei wrote:Yeah, but this show mainly exists to frighten the middle-aged. So they went on about how someone else could have their device near yours and use it to make purchases from your phone to their account without you having to do anything like authorise the actual transaction. It's a fearmongering show.

No. What they do is send out a request to your device as if it were a merchant terminal and then, in poorly implemented systems, it sends out your account number plaintext. And then they use your card number to make purchases at online store or over the phone.

Authorizing purchases is a red herring. The problem is automatically broadcasting your card number as plaintext when it receives a certain signal.

The simplest and most dangerous NFC crack involves just walking around a store with a device that constantly broadcasts the "I"M a POS terminal, tell me your number" signal.

Once they have your number they go home and make a fake account on a eCommerce site that doesn't use credit card address verification (or one that does if your wallet program also sends your address, but I don't know why it would).

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 1:44 am

Sounds like exactly the kind of thing a young person would say to keep us vulnerable!

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 2:34 am

Right, so it's not a smart move to use it, but just because your phone has the capability, that doesn't mean teenagers are going to steal your moneys and your identity and then do bank jobs and drug deals that you'll get arrested for (because they have your ID).

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:16 am

Koumei wrote:Right, so it's not a smart move to use it, but just because your phone has the capability, that doesn't mean teenagers are going to steal your moneys and your identity and then do bank jobs and drug deals that you'll get arrested for (because they have your ID).

It does mean exactly that. Nevar evar rely on banks, cellphone providers or cellphone manufacturers to not opt you in for some insecure shit.

I've had $1000 stolen in exactly this way: a "mobile banking" service by means of which one can send SMS messages and empty one's account. When I was applying for a mandatory debit card at my job, they have provided a sample application form with "please sign me up for paid SMS scams" checked. I didn't check it. They opted me in anyway, I had to waste a day opting out in person. At some point over the years, they opted me in again - tellers get $7 per signup. And it turns out the fact that a certain number is signed up for the scam service can be seen by a grunt worker in a cellphone provider's outlet. So the flyby workers can check the sim cards they currently sell against the database, or apply for a reissue of a sim card supposedly on behalf of a client, activate it, and steal all the money. Which is exactly what happened to me, and the bank refused to return my money. This being the 'default' bank with a 60%+ market share and a literal monopoly beyond the Urals, I'm lucky to have lost only $1000 - people have lost their life savings (because the only other option was to keep the money in cash in a mattress).

(Due to a continuing dire financial situation, I had to apply for a reissue of that insecure card. I am going to write "I hereby expressly forbid you to sign me up for any remote services" on the margin of the application and hope it'll hold up in court.)

As for the "steal your identity" part - this may be different in Australia, but swatting in the US is no joke and can actually get you shot and killed. And being suspected of software piracy on flimsy evidence can get you swatted. Fuck NFC.

edit: typo

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 2:43 pm

In other News:
German Bang Bang still impressive.
I'm not a gun nut, but this is one sexy design O.o
http://www.pascaleggert.de/ThorA1.html
http://www.pascaleggert.de/EPIC_overview.html

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:58 pm

Are... are those for real?

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:01 pm

Shrapnel wrote:Are... are those for real?

Since that is from a product designer's site, I'd say "no".

schpeelah · Post by **schpeelah** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:11 pm

Shrapnel wrote:Are... are those for real?

The SIS-Barrel uses four high-powered superconducting electromagnets to change
the projectiles trajectory mid-air, as it leaves the weapon, to always hit your target,
even if you’re not on target.

What do you think?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:27 pm

Well, excuse me for only looking at the pictures and not reading the text.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:45 pm

Some of the technologies mentioned are real. EXACTO guided bullets, for example, are being developed by DARPA. Prototypes have already been fired. They're expected to be ready by 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX8Z2MDYX3g

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXACTO

The Thor is almost plausible, though extremely over engineered.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 6:08 pm

The designer should quit military engineering and get a job with a video game company (or not quit, but do freelance, more job stability). The Thor is cool looking, but I doubt it'd ever be seen on a battlefield inside the next century, fifty years at soonest.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Fri Sep 12, 2014 3:55 am

If you want high capacity and good looks, grab an AR-57 upper instead. It drops onto a standard AR lower, has the simple action and nice mag of a P-90, and is cheaper than grabbing a P-90. You could probably even drop it onto an M-4 lower, if you wanted to.

Finding cheap 5.7x28 is a little rough, but the kick is much, much nicer and it jams less often.

http://www.57center.com/

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:03 am

Prak_Anima wrote:The designer should quit military engineering and get a job with a video game company (or not quit, but do freelance, more job stability).

Funny that you say it, because that's Pascal Eggert of Crytek. Which may or may not be going bankrupt soonish.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:24 am

Har. Ok, maybe he should start sending his resume to vidya game companies then.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:42 am

So Bandai released a Sailor Moon wallet for the 20th anniversary:

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:53 am

That is an unfortunate picture...

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:24 am

Prak_Anima wrote:So Bandai released a Sailor Moon wallet for the 20th anniversary:

I need 7.