4 ms·
The average user should not need to muck around with the BIOS.
by jgalt212 9y ago
The average user should not need to muck around with the BIOS.
- bearbearbear 9y agoI'm a Mac user and what is BIOS /s
- sctb 9y agoWe've asked you already to post substantively or not at all, and we ban accounts that won't. Would you please take a look at the guidelines and try to change this? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- briandear 9y agoThe average user has an almost zero risk of having to worry about being bugged via their USB. Is your Aunt Irma a target for espionage?
- Teever 9y agoI guess the answer to that question depends on if you or someone else that irma is associated with is the target of espionage
- seanp2k2 9y agoNothing to hide, what’s the problem?
- Jach 9y agoIt's not nothing to hide, it's realistic threat model. But if these things become more popular and in more and more devices they'll just hoover up all the data they can get like already happens with web software. The average user probably should not have to learn what an extension is and figure out which adblocker to install, but this is the inelegant world we live in, and anyway I'm still on the fence for whether I really want to expect more from the average user or not.
- amigoingtodie 9y agoFacebook will mass deploy these to serve targeted advertising based on conversations it hears.
- scardine 9y agoThis is sarcasm, right? (dozen apps already listening the mic in our pockets).
- jimsmart 9y agoThis argument is similar to saying you don't care about someone else's freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.
- khedoros1 9y agoThe average user wants their phone to keep charging, even if they turn their computer off. The non-average user should have no problem mucking around in BIOS settings.
- pdkl95 9y agoThe simple solution to this is using a physical switch instead of hiding that functionality in a BIOS setting. A clever designer could even design it into/near the port itself so each port can be switched independently.
- khedoros1 9y agoAnd those switches can go next to the ones for power to the camera, microphone, wifi, bluetooth, speakers, and anything else that I might want to be electrically disable-able, right? Physical switches for the USB ports sound like they'd be as confusing for most people as the physical wifi switch was, when that was common. I think that means that if some manufacturer decides to introduce them, they won't be around long.
- exhilaration 9y agoI can just imagine the call to technical support for a laptop like that. "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" times a dozen switches