HP at CES 2017

[SansVarnic]

2 hours ago, ionbasa said:

Smart cards are fairly popular. They're used by a lot of businesses and even the government to login to computers, or have "key card" access to doors. I have a combo key card (mag swipe) +  smart card (chip)  ID. I swipe to open doors and access parking structures, and other restricted area off limits to the public and insert the keycard portion to use certain devices. It has our photo IDs on them and other information. 

 

Here's an example: 

 

I'm not  going to post mine for obvious reasons.  

 

@Ryan_Vickers

 

I have one of those slots for my Military ID. Well I did when I had a use for it .... when I was still in.

Dell Keyboard we had at my unit (stock photo of course) - we also had laptops with the same slot for the same reason.

 

*edit 

I considered posting my ID buuuut I would have to heavily Black out most of it and then there the possibility I would still get in trouble so I will suffice with the example posted by @ionbasa

 

[ionbasa]

12 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

@Ryan_Vickers

 

I have one of those slots for my Military ID. Well I did when I had a use for it .... when I was still in.

Dell Keyboard we had at my unit (stock photo of course) - we also had laptops with the same slot for the same reason.

 

*edit 

I considered posting my ID buuuut I would have to heavily Black out most of it and then there the possibility I would still get in trouble so I will suffice with the example posted by @ionbasa

 

I also have an USB smart card reader at home. It's the only way to access my email. PS: Army Corps of Engineers Intern at the moment. Will most likely transition to a full time position next year.

[SansVarnic]

7 minutes ago, ionbasa said:

I also have an USB smart card reader at home. It's the only way to access my email. PS: Army Corps of Engineers Intern at the moment. Will most likely transition to a full time position next year.

I considered doing that myself.... I was an Engineer all 12 years while in the Army but things are what they are. (I miss being in btw.  )

 

I even bought one of these for my laptop. Made life easier for me during my time in. 

[ionbasa]

12 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

I considered doing that myself.... I was an Engineer all 12 years while in the Army but things are what they are. (I miss being in btw.  )

 

I even bought one of these for my laptop. Made life easier for me during my time in. 

Unfortunately, laptops don't have Expresscard slots anymore, so  I'm stuck with a USB reader, but it's not bad.

 

Side note:  

4 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

And sounds kind of primitive to be honest. Why have I never seen his before?

It's actually not primitive, and is one of the more robust and secure solutions to managing logins. It's based off of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). Windows has had native support since Windows 2000 for logins. 

[Scionyde]

3 hours ago, Notional said:

*snip*

I'm guessing there was a thread merge or something here?

 

Not terribly excited by the Omen X announcement. Unless I'm missing something, it's pretty similar to the the Acer Predator x34 or Asus ROG P348Q right down to the MSRP (and both of those monitors have gone on sale for $200 cheaper at times)

[SansVarnic]

6 minutes ago, ionbasa said:

Unfortunately, laptops don't have Expresscard slots anymore, so  I'm stuck with a USB reader, but it's not bad.

 

Side note:  

It's actually not primitive, and is one of the more robust and secure solutions to managing logins. It's based off of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). Windows has had native support since Windows 2000 for logins. 

Yeah I know   my last laptop (ASUS G750) I had to use the USB version... BUt my Dell Inspiron 1750 I could use it in  

 

@Ryan_Vickers The premise is the same or close to that of what the Credit Card chip uses when making transactions. IIRC all connections are certificate based and the PKI can be set to either 256 or 512 bit encryption. Someone correct me please, I know I am missing something here.

[ionbasa]

48 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Yeah I know   my last laptop (ASUS G750) I had to use the USB version... BUt my Dell Inspiron 1750 I could use it in  

 

@Ryan_Vickers The premise is the same or close to that of what the Credit Card chip uses when making transactions. IIRC all connections are certificate based and the PKI can be set to either 256 or 512 bit encryption. Someone correct me please, I know I am missing something here.

Actually, I think it works with any non-symmetric key encryption, up to RSA-2048? It's all based on the X.509 standard. I believe it also can use AES256. 

EDIT:  Also  ECDSA

http://www.smartcardalliance.org/smart-cards-intro-standards/#federal-information-processing-standard-201-fips-201

[SansVarnic]

25 minutes ago, ionbasa said:

Actually, I think it works with any non-symmetric key encryption, up to RSA-2048? It's all based on the X.509 standard. I believe it also can use AES256. 

EDIT:  Also  ECDSA

http://www.smartcardalliance.org/smart-cards-intro-standards/#federal-information-processing-standard-201-fips-201

Yeah thats it, I forgot the RSA standard. It been a little while since I had to mess with it.

Thanks.

[Imabigmac]

7 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

what is that long slot in the laptop?  Too small for a CD but way too big for and SD... plus there seems to be an SD reader beside it anyway

I think it is a vent hole, as it doesn't look like there is one elsewhere. 

[potoooooooo]

6 hours ago, Imabigmac said:

I think it is a vent hole, as it doesn't look like there is one elsewhere. 

Smart card reader

[Randolph_Bubba]

20 hours ago, jasonwj322a said:

 Spectre x360 is getting a refresh and is going to be on preorder starting today. The surprising release for me is the Sprout Pro. Not surprising like I didn't know, just surprising that they are refteshing it after having it did so badly. Though it has been quite some time now.

What do you guys think? I personally am waiting for the Spectre.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/media-kits/2017/ces-launch.html

HP is one of the few manufacturers that make half descent laptops under $1000. As far as I'm aware, other then the XPS line and some lines of alienware laptops, Dell sucks. I really don't like their hybrid drives in laptops because hybrid drives suck. My experience with Dell is overheating laptops with slow drives. My only positive experience with laptops is with lenovo and HP.

[oskarha]

From their website:

Quote

Security and Manageability with HP Sure Start Gen3 self-healing BIOS-level protection

Oh yes, BIOS-level protection on a laptop with a UEFI

[jasonwj322a]

2 hours ago, Randolph_Bubba said:

HP is one of the few manufacturers that make half descent laptops under $1000. As far as I'm aware, other then the XPS line and some lines of alienware laptops, Dell sucks. I really don't like their hybrid drives in laptops because hybrid drives suck. My experience with Dell is overheating laptops with slow drives. My only positive experience with laptops is with lenovo and HP.

Dell's Precision line is awesome. The Inspiron series are also great budget computers.