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We need a "wince" emoji...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I have always protected my systems by keeping up to date system images and data backups, but I often wondered what would happen if some clever hacker developed a virus that corrupts the computer's BIOS. To the best of my knowledge, the BIOS is saved in a hardware chip on the computer's main board. Since the BIOS loads the operating system, if the BIOS is corrupted there's not much you can do about such a virus.
Yes, I have a utility from Dell that will reflash the BIOS chip, but since the BIOS virus controls the operating system, will it allow Windows to reflash the BIOS chip? I doubt it!
The main mechanism used by this malware is to corrupt the manufacturer's logo that first shows on startup, before Windows is loaded. I find this scary, but I have one point in my favor: I only bought Dell devices for my family. Here is a quote from the article below:
Quote: Many devices sold by Dell aren't directly exploitable because the image files are protected by Intel Boot Guard, making it impossible to be replaced, even during a physical attack.
You can read more here:
Just about every Windows and Linux device vulnerable to new LogoFAIL firmware attack | Ars Technica[^]
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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Cp-Coder wrote: if the BIOS is corrupted there's not much you can do about such a virus.
Some motherboards, such as some Gigabytes, comes with a backup BIOS which can't be flashed. So, if the machine is mission critical then it's worth considering a board that has one. You can literally just boot with the backup BIOS and reflash the main one.
Cp-Coder wrote: Yes, I have a utility from Dell that will reflash the BIOS chip, but since the BIOS virus controls the operating system, will it allow Windows to reflash the BIOS chip? I doubt it!
Windows has zero say-so on whether or not you can flash the BIOS. At best it can restart the computer. Any flashing software isn't using the Windows kernel, API, etc.
To your point though, a virus could in theory prevent the reflashing (not sure though). That being said, these days a BIOS is stored on EEPROMs, so nothing can prevent you from physically taking the chip out of the computer and rewriting a good BIOS on it before putting the chip back in the computer. Sure you'd have to soldier/desolder, but it would work.
Cp-Coder wrote: You can read more here:
The logo fail thing has been around for a while, just FYI. There may be a new instance of this that just surfaced, but it's nothing new.
Secure Boot will help mitigate some issues with this. It's not perfect since a virus could bypass that too, but it'll at least make it a bit harder for the virus.
All scare tactics aside, this is one of those cases where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure though. If a machine is mission critical it should be behind a DMZ/firewall/something with locked down restrictions.
Jeremy Falcon
modified 2 days ago.
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jmaida wrote: There is this going on
Holy crap. Why does this not surprise me though...
Jeremy Falcon
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I've stubbornly use MBR on all my machines for concern the real reason for UEFI is so Microsoft can control from where your pc loads it's boot code such as Azure someday and viola Subscription Windows. I don't use 11 at all and only 10 on my MBR DAW because the audio software I use "requires" it. So UEFI is exploited, bummer drag.
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Ron Anders wrote: I've stubbornly use MBR on all my machines for concern the real reason for UEFI is so Microsoft can control from where your pc loads it's boot code
C'mon, even the hardcore Linux guys have come around on that one.
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... I found this promising: Alien: Romulus | Official Trailer - YouTube[^] - very much looks like it's "back to the roots" rather than the "oh gawd not again" of Prometheus and Covenant.
Of course, it could be another case of "trailer-with-all-the-good-bits" and nothing left for the actual movie, but we can hope.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Show the good bits then fill the rest with yawns and I gotta go pee.
A home without books is a body without soul. Marcus Tullius Cicero
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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Man, these Romulans look nothing like what I remember from Star Trek.
Agreed on the trailer - one can only hope all the best bits aren't already in it and the movie brings nothing else.
I really should re-watch the first two again.
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No Sigourney Weaver, no watchee...
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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One of the problems with teaching myself stuff is I end up with my own lexicon and orthography for whatever is I'm dealing with, and then I run into walls trying to come up with solutions where I need input or help from other people.
Having taught myself C++ and generic programming I'm facing one of those issues right now. I'm not sure it can be expressed in C++, and if so, it's through some magic like SFINAE (which i don't understand either)
I simply don't have the language necessary to ask the question. 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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I’ve learned programming all by myself too.
Programming is associated with math. Everyone had the mindset “Math and programming go hand in hand”. I didn’t understand why people thought this way until very recently when I stumbled upon the problem of writing a serious steering algorithm for my strategy game. To get the things I want working I’m facing the challenge of learning the math lessons I skipped over when I was in high school. You don’t need math to learn a programming language that’s true. However you won’t get too far if you don’t know math in a complex program.
modified yesterday.
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honey the codewitch wrote: I simply don't have the language necessary to ask the question.
"Fire bad." Maybe you have to explain it at that level?  Remember, they say if you can't explain something so a 5-year old understands, you don't understand it nearly as well as you think you do. I had a (childless) co-worker adapt that saying to explaining something to his dog. Between us, I don't think the damned dog ever wrote a single line of code in its entire life. 
I don't necessarily keep up with all the latest and greatest coding fads. A few years ago I remember reading something on design patterns and thinking to myself, I've already been doing that for years. That's new?
Turns out, I've been using various design patterns for decades, I just never assigned them any fancy name.
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I inserted my OP from here as a disclaimer, and then posted my question over on reddit but I haven't had much luck there. One person tried to be helpful, but I don't think they understood my question. Nevertheless, they gave me an idea, but it didn't work. Oh well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp_questions/comments/1dluti9/how_do_i_filter_arguments_from_a_parameter_pack/[^]
dandy72 wrote: Turns out, I've been using various design patterns for decades, I just never assigned them any fancy name.
If I had a nickel for every time that happened, I'd have a sock full of nickels to beat annoying people about the head with.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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honey the codewitch wrote: If I had a nickel for every time that happened, I'd have a sock full of nickels to beat annoying people about the head with.
ducks
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I'm not sure if it would help, but you might get in touch with an old friend of mine from college; I became an engineer, she diverged into a brilliant software developer. Her company is thriving and I can barely understand her language anymore, though her webinars are interesting. https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-geller-856491116/[^]
Will Rogers never met me.
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My personal blog has a page devoted to autodidactism though I did not know it was it was referred to as such. The main point of the article is that autodidactism has no pitfalls. Well maybe this one exception.
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Oh there are other issues, like having large or critical holes in one's knowledge vs having been taught formally, and probably the worst one - getting it wrong - learning something incorrectly, and then having expended all that effort only to have to unlearn it and relearn it the right way.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Thank you for your no doubt useful thoughts. Please permit me to consider further. I have never understood why an instructor reciting information exactly identical to that which can be obtained from any number of text authors is superior. If you wish to read my brief essay on the subject the address is How to Save on College Tuition (and get a superior education in the offing)[^]
re/ "getting it wrong" it seems to me technical subjects have an advantage id est the problems at the end of each chapter can either be solved or not exempli gratia either the software / circuit performs as required or not.
On a personal note I hated / hated / hated taking notes. If I wished to train as a note taking secretary I would have trained as such though a fellow student once told me doing so helps her greatly. I recall one lecture in particular I refused to take notes but instead listened intently and found for onceI understood everything perfectly.
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I'd say it's not superior. It has its own problems, like a tendency to box you into the instructor's point of view.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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One of the points made in my essay is the superiority of autodidactism is at least due to the opportunity to read multiple authors. I discovered even in specialized technical fields different authors have new and different things to say even on the same subject.
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I've got a bit of a "not invented here syndrome" (other people's work often just doesn't cut it) and so I created my own time registration and invoicing software for use at my company.
Usual story, it started out as Excel, migrated to a database, then a simple .NET Core application born from hopes and dreams of which I've realized maybe a third.
So this application works really well for me and my coworkers, but it has some quirks and lots of stuff I don't use or haven't finished...
Decided to fix them, then decided to completely modernize it, then decided to cut the fluff, then decided to add features I was really missing...
And a business partner of mine has been nagging me to let him use it for years now so I'm making it multi-tenant (he's my best salesman, bringing in two of my best clients, and I don't even pay him, so I guess I owe him one).
Haven't had so much fun programming in years!
I've been programming instead of gaming, so that's really saying something! 
And then when all was good and well my girlfriend suddenly broke up with me this week (we weren't in a fight or anything, but she just lost her romantic feelings for me and thought of me more as a good friend) 
It's only been three days, and usually I wouldn't even have seen her in that time either, but I'm already missing her and somehow the house feels empty even though she was around only about half of the time.
Well, sh*t happens and I've been through breakups before so I'll probably survive this one as well.
At least I've found a sort of new purpose in my software and I'm not bored 
Oh yeah, and I've been losing weight (after gaining 10 kg in about a year time! ) and this morning I was "suddenly" 1.5 kg lighter (after watching my eating and hiking and biking for weeks, mind you)
I've already lost about 5 kg in as many weeks (really going for it)!
I guess with my girlfriend breaking up I've even lost 65 kg (quote Ross from Friends: "ah, humor based on my pain, ah, ha, ha") 
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We have lived a parallel life up to the point where your girlfriend left.
I found myself in a sole proprietor retail given quickbooks desktop and a laser printer with the un-spoken words of ok, get after it.
Oh, hell no and got to writing my own POS webapp to support daily life in the little shop.
It also grew the same way as yours, going multi-tenant along the way etc.
Best of blessing going forward bro. 
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Ron Anders wrote: Oh, hell no and got to writing my own POS webapp to support daily life in the little shop.
1,000%. If you're a small business, reinventing the wheel while getting started is lacking focus at beast and a waste of resources at worst.
Jeremy Falcon
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