ryv's blog

For the last few days the internetz has been in an uproar. If you haven't heard then have a look at this: Apple ordered to help the US government . For the TL;DR folks out there: some terrorist killers in the USA used an iPhone 5C the FBI want to know what was on the phone the phone has that lock where 10 incorrect pins wipes it a judge has ordered our old mates at Apple to disable the wipe function so the FBI can break in Apple have told them to go away and refused to do it So, gentle reader, why do we care about this? A bit of backstory might be useful... The iPhone has quite solid built in encryption. Check out the Apple Privacy policy here for all the goods (PDF download)  https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf  - lots of goodies in there. From iOS 8 onwards, the basic iPhone data was heavily encrypted, and Apple have always claimed they don't access passcodes or data. Here is their privacy policy if you'd like to have a read:  Apple&#

Recently a client called saying their fairly new E540 wouldn't turn on or respond at all. The red light that makes up the "i" in ThinkPad would light up but that was the extent of the functionality. I tried removing the battery and booting off but no dice. The computer was totally unresponsive. It turns out there is an issue with Lenovo for Small Business software that causes this. To fix it, remove the BIOS battery - this is located under the compartment to the left in this photo: Stick the battery back in and give it the berries. The laptop should boot and complain about the time and date. Set those and start the laptop. Log in, go to Uninstall Programs and ditch the Lenovo for Small Business. Once that's done, it's probably a good idea to update the BIOS. Try not to screw that up by killing power or anything mid upgrade. The recovery process is incredibly annoying and not guaranteed to work. A reboot and you should be right to go. Enjoy.

I have just completed a Cyberethics course and I was forced to consider this question in depth as part of an assignment. Given that I had to answer a specific question, I couldn't really put forward what I truly feel, so that's what this post is all about. I have long considered that paying a fair and reasonable price for content delivered in a timely and reasonable manner to be of no issue whatsoever. Let me put that out there for y'all. If I have access to a wide catalogue of TV shows or movies, they're priced reasonably and the available in a timely fashion I see no reason to have take other measures to get the product I want. In researching the essay for this course, I had to read a whole bunch of journal articles and I won't bore you to death with those, nor will I bore you with proper citations.... From this research, the core matters that affect a person's decision to download or pirate digital content appear to be: price availability time to marke

The Lenovo L540 is a workhorse laptop for around the $1000 mark. These are i5 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, 15.6" machines. I purchased 4 for a client (as you can see) and in the back right of the picture you can see one is experiencing sadness. These are quite nice notebooks for a no-nonsense work machine. The screen is clear and readable, and I especially like the keyboard - the keys have a wonderful return and solid feel to them - far better than my Dell notebook. I find the touchpad to be clunky though - the movement of the click isn't refined and the travel seems quite large. Interestingly, these machines all came with Windows 7 Pro pre-installed - a preferred option for our business clients unwilling to make the jump to Windows 10. We are certainly not foisting Windows 8 off onto people we like - ti's an awful operating system that needs to die as quickly and quietly as Vista did. These run Windows 7 quite happily and once Symantec and a lot of the other Lenovo bl