4 ms·

All the other details are fairly straightforward (toner, envelope, paper, etc) that can be nailed down with enough legwork, but I am wondering how they possibly

by xattt 4y ago

All the other details are fairly straightforward (toner, envelope, paper, etc) that can be nailed down with enough legwork, but I am wondering how they possibly had figured out the GPU of machine. - Are there certain rendering artifacts that can be seen on printed glyphs that give clues to the GPU? - Or, are they going by heuristics here? (I.e. it was XYZ GPU, because it was a common machine that at the time that would be running Win 8 or 10)

shakna 4y ago
> Are there certain rendering artifacts that can be seen on printed glyphs that give clues to the GPU? Most printers will do their own rendering, it's not often that a text document gets pre-rendered by the OS. If it was printed straight from WordPad without being converted to an image, there's no artefact from the host OS, there.
- hoistbypetard 4y ago
  > Most printers will do their own rendering, it's not often that a text document gets pre-rendered by the OS. Without surveying the industry, I doubt that's accurate. Most inexpensive home printers sold to purchasers of Windows PCs are GDI printers. Part of the cost savings associated with those comes from using the PC to render the document.
formerly_proven 4y ago
This is an ongoing investigation, the police don't have to be truthful in their releases. It might be a guess, it might be because they're already fairly sure who did it or is an accomplice and want to create pressure. They might know it for entirely different reasons than analyzing a piece of paper.
- pilsetnieks 4y ago
  It's Norwegian police, though, so they might be held to higher standards of accountability.
  - FargaColora 4y ago
    Any evidence for this suggestion? Most Americans view of Norway is completely wrong, and formed by misleading propaganda on social media/Reddit.
    - GordonS 4y ago
      I'm not Norwegian, but I spent the last 20 years working for a Norwegian company, and spent a lot of time in Norway as a result. Norway is a beautiful, modern country, and while the older generation is still fairly religious (and racist to some degree), overall it's pretty liberal. It's a really nice place, and I considered moving there more than once. The Norwegian police may have some warts, but they are held to a much, much higher standard than police in the US. Honestly, there is no comparison between US police and those in any part of Europe or Scandinavian - we don't have paramilitary-style police busting down doors with flashbangs and automatic weapons blazing, police officers regularly murdering people, or anything like the overt fabrication of "evidence" that some US PDs seem to think is a sport to see how much they can get away with.
      - alophawen 4y ago
        And then there is the police. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41313700 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41313700
        chillingeffect 4y ago
        Taking bribes to let hashish into Norway... not straight and narrow... but several furlongs behind Muricops.
      - vintermann 4y ago
        No, that's right. But there's a still a lot of things the police get away with, especially with respect to drug addicts, "troubled youth" and other people who don't get believed/sympathy when they complain. And then there's NNPF, a not-so independent NGO consisting of current and former narcotics police, which advocates for (and largely runs, without political approval) a much more macho tough-on-crime narcotics policy with school visits etc, interventions which have been rightly rejected by the Norwegian social science and political establishments. It's a constant fight to make sure Norwegian police doesn't drift closer to UK/US style police, and in many ways we are losing.
- einr 4y ago
  On the surface it seems like a very strange assertion. Even if there were subtle GDI rendering differences -- which I doubt -- it is hard to believe that a printout would let them positively identify Intel HD Graphics 630 specifically, as opposed to say HD Graphics 610 or 615 which are slightly slower clocked versions of the same GPU released at the same time and which almost definitely use the same drivers and GDI rendering system. But if the information comes from elsewhere, as in already having a suspect and knowing what computer they used -- they should reasonably have given more information from the same source -- CPU model, etc. I can't imagine a possible way to leak only GPU info -- unless GDI or the Intel drivers has some secret mechanism for intentionally rendering some sort of subtle identification code onto printer output. It's just really hard to understand.
  - ComputerGuru 4y ago
    You’re assuming extreme precision and competence. I’m guessing they have an incomplete database of GPU samples and a fuzzy result came back like “86% match to Intel 630,” and that’s what they published.
- at_a_remove 4y ago
  I was wondering if they weren't working on a parallel construction angle.

by xattt 4y ago

shakna 4y ago

> Are there certain rendering artifacts that can be seen on printed glyphs that give clues to the GPU? Most printers will do their own rendering, it's not often that a text document gets pre-rendered by the OS. If it was printed straight from WordPad without being converted to an image, there's no artefact from the host OS, there.

hoistbypetard 4y ago
> Most printers will do their own rendering, it's not often that a text document gets pre-rendered by the OS. Without surveying the industry, I doubt that's accurate. Most inexpensive home printers sold to purchasers of Windows PCs are GDI printers. Part of the cost savings associated with those comes from using the PC to render the document.

formerly_proven 4y ago

This is an ongoing investigation, the police don't have to be truthful in their releases. It might be a guess, it might be because they're already fairly sure who did it or is an accomplice and want to create pressure. They might know it for entirely different reasons than analyzing a piece of paper.

pilsetnieks 4y ago
It's Norwegian police, though, so they might be held to higher standards of accountability.
- FargaColora 4y ago
  Any evidence for this suggestion? Most Americans view of Norway is completely wrong, and formed by misleading propaganda on social media/Reddit.
  - GordonS 4y ago
    I'm not Norwegian, but I spent the last 20 years working for a Norwegian company, and spent a lot of time in Norway as a result. Norway is a beautiful, modern country, and while the older generation is still fairly religious (and racist to some degree), overall it's pretty liberal. It's a really nice place, and I considered moving there more than once. The Norwegian police may have some warts, but they are held to a much, much higher standard than police in the US. Honestly, there is no comparison between US police and those in any part of Europe or Scandinavian - we don't have paramilitary-style police busting down doors with flashbangs and automatic weapons blazing, police officers regularly murdering people, or anything like the overt fabrication of "evidence" that some US PDs seem to think is a sport to see how much they can get away with.
    - alophawen 4y ago
      And then there is the police. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41313700 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41313700
      - chillingeffect 4y ago
        Taking bribes to let hashish into Norway... not straight and narrow... but several furlongs behind Muricops.
    - vintermann 4y ago
      No, that's right. But there's a still a lot of things the police get away with, especially with respect to drug addicts, "troubled youth" and other people who don't get believed/sympathy when they complain. And then there's NNPF, a not-so independent NGO consisting of current and former narcotics police, which advocates for (and largely runs, without political approval) a much more macho tough-on-crime narcotics policy with school visits etc, interventions which have been rightly rejected by the Norwegian social science and political establishments. It's a constant fight to make sure Norwegian police doesn't drift closer to UK/US style police, and in many ways we are losing.
einr 4y ago
On the surface it seems like a very strange assertion. Even if there were subtle GDI rendering differences -- which I doubt -- it is hard to believe that a printout would let them positively identify Intel HD Graphics 630 specifically, as opposed to say HD Graphics 610 or 615 which are slightly slower clocked versions of the same GPU released at the same time and which almost definitely use the same drivers and GDI rendering system. But if the information comes from elsewhere, as in already having a suspect and knowing what computer they used -- they should reasonably have given more information from the same source -- CPU model, etc. I can't imagine a possible way to leak only GPU info -- unless GDI or the Intel drivers has some secret mechanism for intentionally rendering some sort of subtle identification code onto printer output. It's just really hard to understand.
- ComputerGuru 4y ago
  You’re assuming extreme precision and competence. I’m guessing they have an incomplete database of GPU samples and a fuzzy result came back like “86% match to Intel 630,” and that’s what they published.
at_a_remove 4y ago
I was wondering if they weren't working on a parallel construction angle.