Stupid tech ideas
(Via Timebomb 2000)
Apparently taking their cue from OnStar, Intel decides to put a remote kill switch in their next generation processors. Unfortunately, they probably aren’t going to have the safeguards that OnStar employs to prevent the misuse of this feature.
Just wait until the first Bulgarian hacker figures out how to send a “universal” kill command over the 3G network and shuts down a few hundred thousand (or few million) PCs. The lawsuits that result will bankrupt Intel.
I’ve read several folks saying that they’re going to solve this by deleting Windows and installing their favorite Linux distro. Yo, genius! This is built into the microcode of the CPU, not the operating system. Install whatever OS you want; it will make no difference.
I think I may have to upgrade to whatever the chip is just before Intel introduces this little lunacy and then wait out the inevitable. Or maybe make friends with AMD. {{shudder}} It’s either that, pr pray that someone at Intel suddenly has a moment of sanity….
The stupidist part of this is that they talk about it at all. From Win. 3.1 there were doors but no one talked about it, and they were fairly secure. If you tip your hand your'e asking for trouble.