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micahfocht

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  1. Agree
    micahfocht got a reaction from kirashi in I Broke This CPU on Purpose... Let me Explain   
    I posted this in the floatplane comments, but I think it's interesting enough to post here too.
     
    The idea of a second fuse that can permanently disable PSB seems like a good idea, but it probably won't work. If there's some fuse that can be set that would disable this feature, it would have to have some sort of scary message to inform users that PSB had been disabled. However, what would stop an attacker from modifying the bios, and simply removing this message? The whole point of PSB is to make sure that the bios is trusted, and if it can be disabled, then an attacker could simply disable it and then modify the bios to remove the message and report that the feature was still enabled. If PSB can ever be disabled, then it serves no purpose.
     
    So what's a better way to do this that doesn't needlessly break CPUs? I'd propose that, instead of each vendor signing their own firmware and locking CPUs to that key, that each vendor should send their firmware to AMD for them to sign. This would allow for a secure chain of trust, since the firmware is still signed, and cannot be modified, but it would allow for reuse from one system to another. As long as the firmware was signed by AMD, the processor would run in the motherboard. Potentially, every processor could ship from AMD with these fuses pre-set, possibly improving security since an attacker with supply chain access would have to compromise both AMD and the vendor instead of currently where they could just compromise the vendor.
     
    This might remove some of the freedom that users have on custom built systems; not allowing for the user to modify their bios, but I feel like this is a trade-off that makes sense.
     
    As someone who has modified a bios in the past, I think signature enforcement from AMD is worth it. The types of machines where I would want to modify the bios on are prebuilt systems from the likes of Lenovo. In the past, I actually modified a bios on my Thinkpad t430 to remove the wireless card limitations. This would already be impossible with the given limitations of PSB. Lenovo can lock the bios down and I can't modify it. If other OEMs haven't done this yet, we can be sure they're watching what Lenovo is doing. If they can raise sales even a little by being able to ensure platform security, then they almost definitely will. That ship has already sailed as soon as the first vendor did it.
     
    The bios on a motherboard from an ASUS or an MSI really doesn't need to be modded in the same way. Motherboard vendors aren't locking out certain components like full system vendors are. Maybe hardcore overclockers might be slightly constrained by not being able to modify their bios, but nearly everyone doesn't need to modify their bios, and those that do are likely working with vendors already and could have the vendor send the bios to AMD to be signed. If NVIDIA can do it, surely AMD can manage to come up with a similar solution.
     
    This would give AMD more power over what features a vendor can add to their bios. If AMD doesn't want a vendor to allow overclocking on a low end platform, then they could refuse to sign a bios unless the vendor removes overclocking. We've seen Intel make these moves in the past, and while AMD hasn't yet, there's nothing stopping them from doing this. It isn't a perfect solution, but I think that it's better than locking every CPU to a certain vendor and essentially manufacturing e-waste.
  2. Agree
    micahfocht got a reaction from dalekphalm in What's bigger: Black Friday or Boxing Day?   
    According to Wikipedia, In the UK,[25] Canada,[26] Australia,[27] and New Zealand,[28] Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday.  So not anywhere else in world.
  3. Informative
    micahfocht got a reaction from Chaos_Sorcerer in What's bigger: Black Friday or Boxing Day?   
    According to Wikipedia, In the UK,[25] Canada,[26] Australia,[27] and New Zealand,[28] Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday.  So not anywhere else in world.
  4. Like
    micahfocht reacted to Dr.Moddnstine in My 1995 IBM Aptiva. 486dx2 to i7 6700k. Not 56k safe.   
    Hello all! Long time LTT fan, new to the forum. I wanted to share my build, as it's really been a labor of love for the past month. I trash picked it from a local computer store in December, and it's come a long way since then.

    It started life in 21 years ago 1995 with a 486dx2 running at a mind blistering 66mhz, with a massive 4mb ram, and 1mb video memory. The 3.5 floppy disk could hold a maximum data capacity of 1.44MB. As of a few days ago, it now has a an Intel i7 6700k running at 4.3ghz, 16GB's of 3000mhz ddr4 ram, and 8GB's video memory. The 3.5 floppy drive can read up to 512GB of data from a single diskette. This was not a plug & play build. Massive amounts of cutting, fabrication, welding, grinding, a filing were required. It was awesome.

    Here's the full build with gifs for proper demonstrations of the floppy drive in action: http://imgur.com/a/fvh1M

     











  5. Like
    micahfocht reacted to LinusTech in Feb 19, 2016 - The WAN Show Document   
     
     
     
    Soundcloud Link:
     
     

     
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  6. Like
    micahfocht reacted to dukethedj in Windows Test Drive   
    He takes an SSD with a copy of Windows with no drivers installed on it. He then installs the drivers he needs for the video and then removes them.
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