I, uh, "love" living in the future.
Dec. 12th, 2013 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselking"Reports coming out of Russia suggest that some Chinese domestic appliances, notably kettles, come kitted out with malware—in the shape of small embedded computers that leech off the mains power to the device. The covert computational passenger hunts for unsecured wifi networks, connects to them, and joins a spam and malware pushing botnet. "
I mean, there's no confirmation that this is ACTUALLY happening, but it's possible, and, more importantly, *now we've thought of it* and it's hilariously frightening what omnipresent nanocomputing could actually do.
I mean, there's no confirmation that this is ACTUALLY happening, but it's possible, and, more importantly, *now we've thought of it* and it's hilariously frightening what omnipresent nanocomputing could actually do.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-12 07:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-12 08:23 pm (UTC)Used to be that you could ask your bartender to borrow their charger and top off your phone. Can't do that safely anymore, or at least not for much longer.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-12 08:26 pm (UTC)(No, really: They're uUSB-> uUSB connectors that have only the power pins, not the data pins, and go between your phone and the plug.)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-12 08:52 pm (UTC)Of course, the bar/restaurant/etc that has these available for public use would be awesome beyond words.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-12 08:58 pm (UTC)(Thought: a USB condom that attaches to your device semipermanently. Other thought: A switch to bring the data pins in/out of alignment. Another thought: Two usb ports, one trusted and one power-only untrusted)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-12 11:54 pm (UTC)But yeah, your last idea - damn good and dead simple. Just splice two USB cables into one Y cable, and clearly delineate which connector is power, and which is for trusted connections. I might have to do this - I mean, I've already got some leftover USB-A connectors lying around...
ETA: ... wait, you were talking ports on the device, weren't you? Ah. Little more tricky.
But a tiny Y cable with 2M/1F USB-A connectors? Totally doable.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 01:59 am (UTC)I personally keep a pair of "power-only" USB->Y-corded mini+micro cables especially for untrusted power plugs in my laptop bag. But I understand that I am paranoid.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 12:44 am (UTC)A semipermanent USB condom would be nice, but problematic. Anything that protrudes outside the USB socket is a lever to torque the socket loose. A micro-USB socket to some undetermined nano-USB socket that fitted flush would be nice, but that would require widespread adoption of said nano-USB.
A micro-USB to flush-magnetic charging cable would be nice, but that would also require widepsread adoption of a common magnetic cable.
It's a damned shame that the pogoplugs of Google's Nexii never got popular; one could make a cover for the plug that blocked the data pins.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 02:02 am (UTC)I'm assuming that my semipermanent USB-condom is both trivially removable if you have physical access to the device, like unplugging a USB cable, and that you're not concerned with someone physically destroying your device. More, "I can feel safe plugging into a random USB port".
that would also require widepsread adoption of a common magnetic cable.
I gotta say, I am LOVING Qi wireless chargers. Induction charging also avoids the idea of connecting data pins.
It's a damned shame that the pogoplugs of Google's Nexii never got popular;
I am currently in possession of a Nexus 4, a Nexus 5, and a Nexus 7, and I do not know what you mean. What do you mean?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 02:18 am (UTC)I'm not concerned with intentional destruction; more like "there is something that protudes from my phone's socket on a semi-permanent basis, so any time my phone wiggles in my pocket/bag/etc that something is putting pressure on the socket that the socket was not designed to cope with." I know this accutely because I once left my phone loose in a bag with a portable charger attached; and pressure on the grip-part of the charging port was enough to make the port wiggle loose.
I meant "pogo pins." On the Galaxy Nexus, The Nexus 7 (2012 at least) and other nexodes, there is a small row of four metal contacts along the edge. Those are designed for a magnetic charge/data cable that never became popular. I think the 2013 N7 has five contacts.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 02:37 am (UTC)Ah! That's solvable by making the attachable condom fit flush with the device, even if that makes the device slightly larger.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 02:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 03:25 am (UTC)I don't actually see a problem with that: defenses for the paranoid, per model, are common.