In the series scaremongering, now this report

Ok. Apps can have security holes, or they may even exploit the information intentionally.

But a security company publishes a report about security of those apps, saying that more than half of the apps it checked have security problems. 

You might think that this is a bit worrisome, and it would be if they provided some details. As they're a security company, they do have  incentive to list as many findings they can as security problems. Otherwise people might not find their services worth the money!

A threat assessment of 7 million iOS and Android apps

Come on, guys! This sounds a bit like a program from the past which reported each and every cookie as a privacy problem!

Scare mongering

As we all know, publications NEED good headlines to get themselves read, so that they get revenue.

The headlines need to raise the interest. Scaring people is a sure way to get people read the article.

This is one of those articles

How public Wi-Fi puts unprotected users at risk

 Yes, back in the time of gas lamps, the sensitive applications didn't always use encrypted connections (HTTPS et al). But those days are past, the programmers have learned this lesson, at least, and the apps use SSL.

But that wouldn't make an interesting headline, would it?

Removing a selectable option in a selection box/warning causes people not selecting the removed option? DUH!

Great news: Google has been able to make users of Chrome to heed the warning about security certificates.

 

Earlier about 70% of the users went ahead and proceeded to the website anyway, now only about 40% do the same.

Great results, eh?

Well, if you look a bit closer, they removed the "Proceed to the website" button. I guess they hid it behind "Advanced" options.

It is actually surprising that the 40% of the users were able to proceed to the website! The 30% who didn't find it must be frustrated ;)

Here's to the article in "Help Net Securit": Browser security warning redesigned with partial success

 

Getting cheaper lights (i.e. LEDs, for example) won't save that much electricity, after all

The scientist say that we just use more light, instead of getting the benefits in our electricity bills.

Well, this is hardly a surprise. I remember this phenomenon already from 30 years ago, when networks were only dreams, and the hosts were connected to by using modems, over normal phone lines.

At that time the throughput of the modems was increasing rapidly. I heard some say that we'll save a lot on the telephone costs because of this.

Didn't happen: we just ended up sending more e-mail, downloading more files etc.

Empty tank? No problem, just pee into the tank

Hmm. Future seems to be intoxicating, at least as the fumes from the car tank goes.

New research has shown that in the future you might want to pee in your tank!

Joys of web

My workmates have found the trail I've left in the web, learning where I had my honeymoon, amongst other things.

Well, I love to keep my friends entertained ;-)

Soprano decided to spam me again!

This is my favorite peewee: why on earth companies insist on spamming people? It just creates bad karma.

A few weeks ago Soprano spammed me, and I duly reported the incident at sfnet.viestinta.roskapostit.
I sent them a response telling them to stop spamming any of my domains.
I also called Academica, where a guy that called himself "Suhonen"
told me that he'll do something about it.

I also asked him what their anti-spam policy was. He couldn't tell
and told that mr Broadstreet" would be able to discuss the matter
with me, unfortunately he wasn't in at the moment. I left him a message
asking him to contact me.

That call never came.

Now Soprano spammed me again. I'll have to call Academica again. Stay tuned!

T-shirt shop open!

I gave a lecture for tax inspectors
regarding internet, including various internet shops and what have you.
I came across an interesting web site: it printed T-shirts that others
have designed, and the designers got money for each sale. The site was Cafepress.

Then a few weeks later I got totally mad at various delivery lorry
drives, who, instead of parking near the curb where there is lots of
space available, decide to park in the driveway, two meters to the left
of the curb!

Well, I decided I need a t-shirt for that. I found out that there is a European supplier operating in a similar way, called Spreadshirt. I decided to open a shop there with my collegue, Jokke.

Now you can see the t-shirt stemming from the frustration of those who cannot walk. The rest of the designs you can find at NerdsRUs shop.

Nerds have taken over at Elisa!

Edit: Further study and thinking showed, that the pages are not Elisa's. They belong to their customer. Funny anyway.

Over at Elisa (one of Finlands biggest telcos) they've decided to
really hit the search engines. If you look at
http://elisanet.fi/polyfoniset.soittoaanet/ you'll find for example
these strings (translations in italics):

eläinpornoa animal porn

spiritismin ohjeet spiritism instructions

downloads

vitun ruma neekeri fucking ugly nigger

teinityttö galleria teenie girl gallery

goatwomen

ottaa poskeen blowjob

saatananpalvonta satanism

teinibileet teen party

huoralta whore

gootti metal gothic metal

vitun hauskoja kuvia fucking funny pictures

pillu galleria cunt gallery

jaana pelkonen alastonkuvia nude

and

  sex free gallery

sex free lolita voy

sex on the public.jpg

sex pics free britney spears

sex tv5.org

sexgalaxia. com/aina

sexy babes of finnland

You get the picture. Let's see how long this'll last

Welcome to this edition of LWK over at www.kapsi.fi

EDIT: This is no longer tru. Instead of being a hard-core dude, I decided to do it the easy way. Perhaps I spend more time blogging, now that it is easy. This is now in Blogger.

Decided to run my own blog for a change, so I got an account at kapsi and set up the blog there. The url'll change when I direct my domains here, but the contents will remain.

I decided to run BLOG:CMS, since it seemed easy to set up, kapsi servers were up to the requirements that the sw had, and BLOG:CMS seemed to have the features I wanted.

I can warmly recommend KAPSI if you have personal web sites to run,
or otherwise need shell access. Their administration has been
excellent: friendly and knowledgeable. Granted, it is volunteer run,
but responsetimes have been good (a day or two, compared to weeks with
the inflexible ISPs we have here).

For 30 eur membership fee/year you can get www space, shell access and loads of other stuff. Only for Finns, though.

Clearvoyance is a proven gift

And spammers have it!

What else could you think when you consider the accuracy of their targetting. I for example have got these ads recently:

“Get an Online Unversity Degree” - I wonder how they knew I was thinking of getting a bit more education

“A Brighter, Prosperous Future” - Retirement early has been always my dream

“Extra 3 i.nches on average!” - Hmm.

“Get Meds Fast and Cheap” - this wouldn’t hurt

“Voluptuous sluts get DIRTY!” - I’m married, need I say more?

“New! Viagra soft tabs.” - things just ain’t the way they used to be

“Irresistible to the opposite sex” - it would be flattering, although I’m not sure if I knew what to do if this really happened

“9% Improvement in muscle mass” - so I wouln’t be so geek like.

In the view of the above, I think I should start asking hard questions questions about my relatives:

“is your sister in pain” - I didn’t know I had any

“Sick of big brother dipping into your pockets?” - Hmm. yet another one to split the inheritance

Finnish version of XP SP2 is here

Not yet in the Windows Update, thank <Deity>!

Time to stop reading Finnish newsgroups that deal end-user computer problems.

Time to cash in on customers

Reminder: I need to change my telephone number, unless I want to
receive phone calls from friends and aquantances that installed the SP2
in the middle of the night....