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rudyfink's comments

rudyfink | 2 years ago | on: Watch TV from the 90s and earlier

>The biggest difference is that today, it never comes back around the dial - the dial is practically infinite.

And the TV analyzes your dial-flipping to determine what channel to change you to / generates a channel you are more likely to stay on.

rudyfink | 2 years ago | on: China solar module prices keep diving

That website--1990s text-only style--is a strong statement. I am not sure if it's a statement that "we're going to take over the world, get on board now" or "in hindsight, we'll say we should have spent more on marketing," but it does get one's attention.

rudyfink | 2 years ago | on: Our right to challenge junk patents is under threat

I wouldn't be surprised if it takes 5 years (or more) to both get a patent and litigate it though any appeal. FWIW, in the current U.S. system, my understanding is the time it takes to get the patent comes out of the 20 years, though I think you can get some time back if it takes a very long time.

rudyfink | 3 years ago | on: Hustle bros are jumping on the AI bandwagon

Or the performer is whomever you'd like it to be but some performers cost more than others based on rights? So if you'd like, you can be Rick-rolled by an AI generated dancing penguin in the style of Picasso with anime overtones for one price, but the original or AI up-scales thereof will cost you more (though, obviously, your willingness to accept AI-added background product placement built into the video will effect the cost).

rudyfink | 3 years ago | on: SIM swapper abducted, beaten, held for ransom

Adverse issues (e.g., fraud) tend to get noticed more in downturns, because, generally, everyone cares more about the details in those times. In times of plenty, they also occur (perhaps even as much), but people are more willing to let the same behavior pass because everything is going well.

At the risk of stepping too much into the meta, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some innate behaviors from evolution for responding to downturns (e.g., caring more about fairness).

rudyfink | 3 years ago | on: Brooks County TX pays off hacker with tax dollars after ransomware attack

This may be a very dumb crypto / ransomware question, but if someone knows the answer, I'd appreciate it.

Why don't businesses (or systems) seed their drives with files with known text / content and then use those files to reverse the method used to encrypt? It seems like having an adversary encrypt a set of known "canary" files should provide information to reverse the encryption?

Again, there may be a good reason (or many many good reasons) why this would not be a good solution, especially since I'd expect most OS installations have enough standard files to do this if it worked, but I am curious if someone knows.

Edit: From the helpful comments, this is a known class of attack on a cryptosystem called a plaintext attack. Using that information, I looked into how ransomware systems address this attack, and several, apparently, use per-file keys as, in part, a defense against this type of attack.

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