asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: in case you missed, beautiful turd: http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792325/Absolute_Computrace_Revisited

asciilifeform: sure!

asciilifeform: 426 bit rsa key, lol

asciilifeform: esp. since it is possible to refuse VirusOS today - vs. then

asciilifeform: re: ransomware: '90s virii simply formatted your disk. how exactly is this any worse?

asciilifeform: not intel crap

asciilifeform: several places have massive fpga clusters, hijack those.

asciilifeform: 'whatcha in for? doge'

asciilifeform: but if you're hijacking something, why not a supercomputer. 'might as well hang for a sheep as for a lamb.'

asciilifeform: well, from whoever

asciilifeform: neither is mooching cpu cycles from employer

asciilifeform: they just buy a ride from professional spammers

asciilifeform: most crapnet artists have no l33t sk1llz

asciilifeform: and expandable.

asciilifeform: botnet is cheaper

asciilifeform: from btce russian trollbox: '[gox] will end up like soviet gensec: after prolonged illness, perished unexpectedly...'

asciilifeform: jurov: for some applications, this makes sense.

asciilifeform: at all.

asciilifeform: jurov: ideally, there would be nothing on the pc that suggests ownership of a cardano.

asciilifeform: but, unlike the case of a dedicated app, there is no simple mechanical test.

asciilifeform: jurov: once again, a human watching, if he has a brain, may eventually figure it out

asciilifeform: but an automatic diddler is faced with a considerably-harder problem.

asciilifeform: not that a human, driving a pwned machine remotely, will remain permanently unaware that the victim owns a cardano

asciilifeform: soviet nuke subs, it is said, have manually-cranked reactor controls.

asciilifeform: davout: because it doesn't appear until the trigger is pulled

asciilifeform: if, on the other hand, you merely move files onto and out of a usb drive...

asciilifeform: if you have any dedicated software component on the pc end (e.g. browser plugin), it is a target.

asciilifeform: but consider the question of whether an attacker can automatically determine that cardano is present and in use.

asciilifeform: yes

asciilifeform: and creates an easy target

asciilifeform: a dedicated piece of soft for talking to cardano defeats this purpose.

asciilifeform: only the human knows

asciilifeform: jurov: one of the reasons why cardano is that the host machine does not automatically know that a cryptographic widget, as such, is plugged in.

asciilifeform: verify, ok. sign/decrypt without human trigger pull - no thanks

asciilifeform: gpg running automatically in a browser (or elsewhere) is questionable wisdom.

asciilifeform: did sell. last i checked they were sold out.

asciilifeform: alcohol for the electricals

asciilifeform: wash, rinse, repeat

asciilifeform: keys, caps, and plastic shell overnight in enzyme-bearing dishwash liquid

asciilifeform: if you're willing to clean the thing yourself, you can go as low as $10.

asciilifeform: amazingly cheap for what you get.

asciilifeform: they're still ~50 usd. on ebay and the like

asciilifeform: decimation: admittedly, it was ~20 yrs. old when i got to it, so i haven't any idea of what they were like when new.

asciilifeform: decimation: nope.

asciilifeform: mechanical quality isn't 100% there.

asciilifeform: yes. wasn't really satisfied

asciilifeform: ?

asciilifeform: (garbage)

asciilifeform: Vexual: same. no kbds made after 1990 or so.

asciilifeform: at any rate, i've worked with gadgets that would not play with any available converter.

asciilifeform: (if you have a widget that wants hardware flow control, you're generally SOL with the converter)

asciilifeform: and lpt.

asciilifeform: yes it does

asciilifeform: the converters work for most purposes

asciilifeform: 'we put shit in the shit so you can eat shit while you eat shit' (tpm)

asciilifeform: https://www.zaber.com/w/images/thumb/1/13/Rs232_waveform_instruction_byte.jpg/400px-Rs232_waveform_instruction_byte.jpg

asciilifeform: http://www.ermicro.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/rs232_01.jpg

asciilifeform: or lpt, where there is no protocol to speak of, only a bunch of wires with controllable logic high/low.

asciilifeform: vs. something like rs-232, which can be described to a child on a napkin.

asciilifeform: usb is a highly-stateful protocol with a book-length standard ☟︎

asciilifeform: (the DIN plugs seen on pre-usb apple keyboards and mice)

asciilifeform: it's a refinement of their earlier 'adb'

asciilifeform: they introduced it

asciilifeform: blame apple for usb

asciilifeform: usb is a first-class bitch.

asciilifeform: paradoxically, i/o was much easier (from designer's point of view) in those days.

asciilifeform: ground loop.

asciilifeform: ?

asciilifeform: modern pc rarely comes with lpt, i've a pcie card with one just for such occasions.

asciilifeform: quick&dirty, works.

asciilifeform: (add 3 wires and 12v rail, it would write)

asciilifeform: bottom two photos: ad-hoc reader

asciilifeform: http://loper-os.nfshost.com/wp-content/mwredux/rom.jpg

asciilifeform: (top left of 2nd shot, with electrical tape over window)

asciilifeform: little bugger on the bottom-right of 1st shot is eprom

asciilifeform: http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1066

asciilifeform: example:

asciilifeform: if you need to read/write old roms, consult arcade machine enthusiasts

asciilifeform: kitchen?

asciilifeform: (rather than the 12v or so 'erase' rail that was once needed)

asciilifeform: and finally, modern 'flash', which is really an eeprom that operates on ordinary logic voltage

asciilifeform: no uv needed

asciilifeform: then, EEPROM (electrically erasable)

asciilifeform: in late '80s, EPROM (erasable), programmed by removing and baking under uv light to erase, and writing in a gadget built for the purpose

asciilifeform: e.g. the mask ROMs found in most 1980s hardware

asciilifeform: Vexual: those used to be standard.

asciilifeform: you can fit just about anything in 4-8M

asciilifeform: Vexual: they're mighty big, if you ask me

asciilifeform: http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792325/Absolute_Computrace_Revisited

asciilifeform: '... Severing ties with the NSA started off with a NSA penalty but was so hugely popular it still got the #1 spot. However, it was quickly given an even bigger penalty, forcing it down the page.'

asciilifeform: '...Anything with "NSA" in the title is penalized and drops off quickly.'

asciilifeform: http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really-works.html

asciilifeform: http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html

asciilifeform: then disks pulled, and the obvious endgame.

asciilifeform: 10 minutes?

asciilifeform: how long does it take to write a perlturd that tells a planted box which other units in a cage are pumping tor?

asciilifeform: the sheer naivete. do we have to draw a picture here?

asciilifeform: haha

asciilifeform: just to mask this fact

asciilifeform: if the puppetmasters were clever, they'd occasionally let something useful and intelligent be printed