Monthly Archives: February 2012

Microsoft marks Root Certificates updates as “optional”

February 26, 2012

You probably know that some Web https certificate issuers have been hacked these last month. These hacking enabled to create fake https certificates for Google.com, Microsoft.com, twitter.com, FaceBook.com and many others. Reports indicate that these fakes certificates has been used to intercept communication between users and Google, web mail services and social medias. Thus, they were able to intercept user account name and password, and any communication, finally to own their account or spy on them continuously, beside use of the https protocol, encrypted and designed to protect your privacy. There’s a mechanism to prevent usage of these fake certificates, it’s updating the root certificates, to disable all certificates that were issued by the hacked providers. Then a fake google.com certificate won’t be accepted in any browser, the browser will refuse it, but still the correct google certificates will be recognized as signed and correct. I discovered today on my Virtual Fusion Windows, that Microsoft don’t offer this update by default: my Windows and my Internet Explorer where using a totally outdated root certificate list, opening the ability for anyone using a fake certificate to spy any communication I have with Google, Microsoft and others! What the hell it is

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Why wait for Ivy Bridge?

February 23, 2012

Ivy Bridge is expected in Q2 or Q3 this year and everybody seems to hold it’s breath. What give us Ivy Bridge PCI-Express 3.0, better CPU performances, better GPU performances, better autonomy. PCI-Express 3.0 PCI-Express 3.0 double the bandwidth of PCI-Express 2.0, still retaining compatibility with PCI-Express 2.0 peripherals, and it might be welcome on multiple GPU configuration, or GPGPU development. As it was demonstrated, even on the fastest available GPU, Radeon HD 7970, there’s few difference if any between PCI-Express 2.0 and PCI-Express 3.0. As it won’t be available for laptops, or Mac Mini, and iMac always have mid-range GPU, this might only be a benefit for a future Mac Pro. So Ivy Bridge doesn’t have an edge over Sandy Bridge here! Better CPU Performance On the actual benchmarks, Ivy Bridge is 5% to 10% faster than Sandy Bridge at the same frequency: it’s better but by a slight margin that none of use will be able to see in real-world use. Marginally better but not a reason to wait! Better GPU performance This is where Ivy Bridge will shine, but it’s only interesting on Mac without discrete GPU: MacBook Air, future Macbook Air/Pro ?!?, Mac Mini. Sadly, even

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Google Flash commitment

February 22, 2012

Some people think that Google is an open-source giant, that is naturally against proprietary software. It’s all but true. The whole google stack of software is proprietary, or proprietary adaptations of open-source software, and as a web-company, they need it to have an edge over challengers. Google push Flash on multiple ways since years, and they ensure you could not use some of their websites without having Flash Player (as a browser plug-in or integrated in Chrome). Google YouTube YouTube send only Flash video to PC/Mac browser, even if the browser don’t have the Flash player. They have H.264 version playable by FireFox, but they don’t send it, they just do it for Mobile platforms (iPhone, iPad, etc). The main point is to ensure you will install Flash Player, because everybody use YouTube at one point. Having H.264 playable content, YouTube may stream it when a browser is not Flash-enabled. Instead Google choose to ask you to install Flash. This is not a matter of content-delivery, it’s a matter of forcing users to install Flash! Google Analytics There’s many technologies to display simple graphs, notably using Ajax and HTML5. Instead, Google choose to use Flash exclusively, so if you choose

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1983, again?

February 20, 2012

Remember 1983, all computers were looking identical, running same graphical operating-system, in a market dominated by one big company, that tried to close it’s platform using proprietary interfaces (MCA bus licensed to others), and another company that provides the ubiquitous Office software that comes with it. No choice. All independent platforms where dying, original designs where disappearing, every software that challenged what’s included in Windows were shifted out of the market, consumer had no real choice but to confy their data to the IBM-Microsoft-Intel triumvirat. Now, we are back to the future, 1983 again… All computing devices shares the same designs, running similar graphical operating-systems, with similar software on each platforms, with closed platforms using proprietary ports (such as dock port or Thunderbolt port, licensed to others). You could choose grey computer, metal grey but still grey, or have black glass surfaces, and usually both on each product. You could choose to use a hand-sized device as iPhone or iPod Touch, a tablet-sized iPad, or a desktop/laptop Mac. All same colours, all running OS with the sams roots, all being more and more unified, with same basic software inside, same business model, same online store. Independent mobile platforms are struggling,

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1 year of thunderbolt

February 19, 2012

Don’t miss out our edition of Friday, February 24, to celebrate one year of Thunderbolt with you: what Intel and Apple promised, what works, what is flawed (and why), and why one year after it’s apparition in the MacBook Pro, 18 months after being finalized on PC platforms and demonstrated on final computers, you don’t find peripherals, nor adapters for mainstream peripherals. Only on Mhackintosh.com next Friday!

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