Paperghost Postbag: Randomness Galore

You asked. I answer:

Do you ever think youre too, uh, militant sometimes? JabaMan

Hi, this is me shooting bad guys in the face.



Not only am I shooting them in the face, but I have no idea how to actually hold a gun which probably makes me twice as dangerous. Especially when I charge in to steal their shoes. Additionally, recent scientific testing has shown that I'm at least as militant as Paris, my wallet looks like this and when I pwn you, it goes a little something like that.

All in all, I'd consider myself pretty militant and I have no intention of changing anything anytime soon. Why shouldn't we treat the people behind hijacking with the same level of arrogant disdain that they've treated computer users with for years? Why should we give them any pardons or do them any favours or trot out some lame excuses?

No, man. Keep wailing on them and pound them into the ground. It's the only way.

Some people accused me of being overzealous with regards this guy. The thing is, all infections treat their victims the same, so I figure we need to apply the same logic to the people behind them regardless of who they might be. If you're rich, I'll cost you money. If you're poor, I'll prevent you getting rich. If you're in a wheelchair, I'll push you down the stairs.

It's like that, and that's the way it is, yo.

Seems like everyone has a blog now. What do you think of the more corporate efforts out there (for want of a better word)? Steve

Oooh, controversial or something. Well, not really. There's more than enough room for all these blogs (though maybe not enough time to read them all). Of course, any corporate blog will necessarily have a point beyond which they can't go in terms of what they can post to their site, so I have the advantage of being able to throw up any old garbage or a rap video or whatever. But if a well known security firm starts up a blog from scratch, they immediately have a ready made audience of a size that may dwarf my collection of daily readers, so that sort of stings I guess.

Then again, I think there's something to be said for building up a readership from zero, because you tend to have a better insight of what works and what doesn't in terms of increasing that readership and making it grow organically.

Then again, I'd love to start a blog with a ready made audience of zillions.

Then again, here it is. I don't know the exact figures, but I do know SPG gets an insane amount of traffic due to the main site having been around so long before the blog was set up.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter anyway, if you write something new or interesting it'll spread anyway. I do enjoy the daily interaction with this site's loyal following, so thanks for sticking around.

One thing I do want to see is more indie blogs! All the new ones of note recently seem to be company sites. The indie vibe is sort of dead at the moment, where's everybody gone?

We need more stupid garbage and rap videos.

I've probably asked something similar before. William Gibson's Neuromancer, and associated stories.

How long until we're there?

Where can I get a kill-file like in Idoru?

When you form the crew that hunts down spam/scam/crapware people - with guns - will you let us know so we can get involved? Derrill

All I can do here is point to me shooting guns in a poor fashion, and then point to the inevitable news reports when I'm let loose with a crack team of commandos, no doubt in a large black van with a red stripe, some dude who ain't gettin on no plane and that bloke out of Battlestar Galactica.

I'm hoping our minds are implanted into large mech-suits that fire missiles and come with built in Ninja swords before I get too old and droopy. That would freaking rock.

In all seriousness though, this is the guy you want to ask about that kind of stuff. Some of his theories and ideas on those sort of topics rock.

I just read a pretty generic article about FaceTime exposing customer information in The Register. I'd like to hear a less reactionary version of events if you can tell us exactly what happened? Rob Newby

To be honest, I've absolutely no idea what happened (or the cause of the problem) other than what was posted on the Register article. As whoever is responsible for it is presumably based in America somewhere, I haven't got any additional info as I'm based in the UK and don't have any involvement in the FaceTime website, I just do research and feed it into the various blogs.

That said, what happened is stupid. On the other hand, if the problem was something to do with server permissions screwing up after an update was applied, there but for the grace of God etc etc.

On the bright side (for me, anyway), I'm happy to report the screw up has absolutely nothing to do with the research teams so as far as I'm concerned we'll just be doing what we've always done. As far as I'm concerned, it's someone else's problem. I have had a few emails through of the "lol your research sucks" variety, but really, what does some boobery on a website I have no direct involvement in have to do with suddenly removing the value or worth of the research done? Meh. It looks stupid, but I doubt it'll have any impact on what I do.

Hello Chris, My question is..Do you listen to LBC FM? Joey Joe Joe Shobbydoo

I have no idea what radio station that is, but the answer (sadly) is no.

Blue pill controversy. What do you think? Devilz Sunz

You mean the whole "let's argue about whether or not it can be detected for about six years but never really prove it either way" thing? It makes me yawn, to be honest. I've tried to be interested, but every time I hear about it, I just shrug my shoulders. That's probably a bad thing, but oh well.

Do you believe there will come a day that Zango will ever answer a straight question with a straight answer because after reading the Comments The Zango guy made I'm starting to wonder... Milligansghost

.....I have no idea which comments you mean :(

Any conferences or talks or anything coming up? Rackson Jackson

Two words: Zealot Revolution Tour.

Oh wait, that's three. Keep em' peeled, anyway. And with that, we bid farewell to the latest Postbag. Thanks for asking questions about things and stuff, some good and vaguely controversial ones this time round.