Minimenu: Personal Message

[Pleng]

I thought it might be a nice feature for there to be an area in Minimenu for users to be able to add a personal message which would be displayed in Minimenu. A typical message might be 'if found please email........'.

There are some good peple left in this planet, and I figured that there's more chance of getting your Pandopra back if there's an easy way for he who discovers it to contact the original owner. Locking it down with a password is all well and good for protecting against theives, but not so good if it gets found by an innocent bystander.

 

[Atomos]

The first thing I have done after booting the first time was attaching a sticker with my address to the inside of the battery lid...

This way nobody has to switch it on and start any programs to find the owner.

 

[Chaser]

Thats a nice idea Pleng as as you say with a simple sd card swap and a reflash by someone who at least opens the battery and follows the website to discover what she is, renders security mute.

There are some samaritans still and PokeParadox was a lucky experience. I think it wise most exchange type shops are made aware that these are usually only sold via ebay due to their scarcity aswell.

 

[Pleng]

true, but they do need to take the battery cover off

 

[Gerix]

I was thinking about setting up slim to have a message concerning the return of my unit. I was thinking about having it display a message after the first unsuccessful login (if possible). But maybe it should be set up to display as soon as the prompt is displayed.

 

[Chaser]

Yeah the physical address sticker is a good idea too, plus security marker pens etc yet in Pokes case he was very lucky his would be thief with a shamed change of heart had merely swapped the SD´s about and not followed the "Made in the UK" yellow brick road sticker to the wizardess behind the log in curtain.

^ As for the slim (?) idea.... After say 3 tries, a message would be good and perhaps after 10 a locked out message that states

"You have either chosen to hurt my feelings and not used me for an aeon, disgracefully lost me somewhere, or I suspect you who is now reading this have stolen me! Whilst I am filled with Hope, your sole one now is to return me to my rightful owner at ....blah blah ....BTW I am NOT a weird Nintendo DS"

These are nice ideas but the security question remains.

To avoid a bigger rant and having never needed to reflash on 2 units, I would like to ask the following simple question ;

Is the reflashing process Password protected? If not why not?

 

[Pleng]

Password protecting the reflashing process would either:

a) Be pointless if you're still allowing to boot from SD, or
B) Stop the unit being unbrickable if you're password protecting SD boot too.

 

[Prometheus]

If not why not?

What if you forget the password?

EDIT: Beaten to it by Pleng! h34r:

 

[Pleng]

Wohooo! iWin!

 

[Chaser]

You miss the purpose and yes I am suggesting making the unbrickable pandora, seemingly bricked.

The idea being that yes, reflashing does require a password. Booting from SD also (now you mention it), if that option for 'password protected' is currently 'ticked' i.e when you go out and about with your Pandora into circumstances where it might get lost, or nicked.

This wont affect the user at all.

Afterall with the Pandoras battery life, its not like you cant simply tick the box to re-activate the protection prior to leaving your house and you're unlikely to need to reboot. If you do, whats the hassle?

A simple password, different to the OS login one, allows you to boot from your SD even if you've disabled the OS one. Worse case theres 2 passwords.

For example I cant be bothered with a permanent 'password' for login, as its a pain in the ass whiLSDed testing stuff but the hidden one for re-flashing, will still render the unit useless if I remember to activate the standard one for login whenever I go out. As then the OS cant be accessed via the standard one.

Yet it prevents any access to the Pandora itself, (sure they can root through your SD cards on another device for personal info, OS passwords etc if your dumb enough to store it there) but the NAND held re-flash password, means the system is totally locked and useless without it.

The system is potentially then secure from any useful worth, or passing onto others and at that point of attempted re-flashing to return her to factory defaults, they are asked:

"SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?"

"I HAVE CAKE TO KEEP YOU GOING"

"TIC TAC TOE PROFESSOR FALKEN?"

"IT IS NICE TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS BUT WITHOUT THE MAGIC WORD AND DESPITE ME BEING FILLED WITH HOPE, YOUR ONLY ONE NOW IS TO RETURN ME TO MY RIGHTFUL OWNER (BLAH) OR CONTACT MY CREATORS OPT LTD, WHO WILL DO THE JOB FOR YOU AND PERHAPS MY OWNER WILL SAVE YOU ANY CHARGES AND REWARD YOUR SAMARITAN BEHAVIOUR THEMSELVES"

"I WAS LYING ABOUT THE CAKE BTW.... ITS NOT LAID ON"


Now are you two really telling me you could forget your most important Pandora password?

Sure Pleng you've had some issues with yours (my right nub also just broke), have charitably donated one and are miffed about a few things you'd like fixed. In this instance, your suggestion here as OP attempting to find a good way to protect it against loss, bar a reflash scenario, has prompted my stupidity to action in my post.

Whilst Prometheus of the 'Wu school of How', you who knows full well the dodgyness of many products to the benefit of the greater good. Can you really somehow with this one that you pour your heart into, in your knowledgeable writings (someone please port a cross stitch program) not capture the game of stones enough to recall an additional password, to protect your Pandora from the rival clans attacking Ninja? Lord Ghodha expected more of you, you dishonour our mountain.

Pandoras linux asks for passwords all the freakin time anyway btw. Why not have the option to make, switch on/off alter etc, a password that actually does something freakin useful?

Thats all I am suggesting afterall.

Not like I asked Jacqueline to personally database every receipt number with the actual unit number shipped out to the customer and keep that databased with a column for 'Owned', 'Sold On', 'Reported Stolen', 'Returned' etc now is it?

edited: for even less clarity of expression thanks to even more claret

 

[Pleng]

You can't be bothered to have a password for logging in, but you can be bothered to change a setting every time you leave the house. Do what now?

 

[Chaser]

I thought you might say that but how am I inconvenienced then, anymore than someone would be in the rarer instance of needing to reflash and having to enter a password?

For example my password is required in any instance of logging off and back in, of using the terminal to execute a script etc yet it provides me no real protection even when in place.

If a condom, it may aswell have a prick in it, as at the backdoor is a fresh SD card waiting to get flash by pressing the Right button without so much as asking for my permission for access!

 

[Prometheus]

Now are you two really telling me you could forget your most important Pandora password?

Whilst Prometheus of the 'Wu school of How', you who knows full well the dodgyness of many products to the benefit of the greater good. Can you really somehow with this one that you pour your heart into, in your knowledgeable writings (someone please port a cross stitch program) not capture the game of stones enough to recall an additional password, to protect your Pandora from the rival clans attacking Ninja? Lord Ghodha expected more of you, you dishonour our mountain.

I am afraid that I do on occasion forget things, and accordingly this could potentially be one of them. My apologies to the mountain. I'll have to send my robots to take care of the ninja.

EDIT: If it were some sort of password only present in the manual (and possibly unique to each unit or something like that?), I would probably view it differently. However, I know that that would be prohibitive to implement in the first place, so it's moot.

 

[WizardStan]

For example my password is required in any instance of logging off and back in, of using the terminal to execute a script etc yet it provides me no real protection even when in place.

It asks for your password only when something needs to be done that can potentially mess up your system. It's to prevent someone (including yourself) from doing something they shouldn't without interfering with the rest of the system. You should never really see this except for system updates, which are rare, or when mucking about with things deep in the system in which case you should be expert enough to understand why you're entering your password.
I am with the others: a global password which prevents reflashing is a bad idea. There's two very likely points of failure: either I enter a password, and then forget it when the system crashes and I need to reflash; or some scrupulous person sets the password without my knowledge, and then I'm screwed if the system crashes.
I mean, no desktop or laptop, indeed no other computer I can think of, has the level of protection you are asking for. What makes the Pandora so special that you would force these risks on other people?

 

[Prometheus]

^ I'm no mind-reader, so this is just a guess, but, perhaps the rarity at this time could be a factor in the specialness?

 

[Chaser]

Now are you two really telling me you could forget your most important Pandora password?

Whilst Prometheus of the 'Wu school of How', you who knows full well the dodgyness of many products to the benefit of the greater good. Can you really somehow with this one that you pour your heart into, in your knowledgeable writings (someone please port a cross stitch program) not capture the game of stones enough to recall an additional password, to protect your Pandora from the rival clans attacking Ninja? Lord Ghodha expected more of you, you dishonour our mountain.

I am afraid that I do on occasion forget things, and accordingly this could potentially be one of them. My apologies to the mountain. I'll have to send my robots to take care of the ninja.

EDIT: If it were some sort of password only present in the manual (and possibly unique to each unit or something like that?), I would probably view it differently. However, I know that that would be prohibitive to implement in the first place, so it's moot.

You have our gratitude. Your Robots were a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude, built upon the spirits of our ancestors and the Ninja's couldn't outlast their superior batteries and surveillance mechanisms. Ashamed and exhausted, they fell from or were instructed to come out from, their futile hiding places and head back to their villages to more prosperous futures. You have honoured the mountain once more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLihu2K4Q6k

A global password would not be useful and expensive to print as you say. The Prin-TaTo-PotHead Klan also have Ninja working as printers now (as there was not many options for disgraced HashAssHatsins from the Mountain fiasco). Nothing is more unique than your own minds creation as a password though.

For example my password is required in any instance of logging off and back in, of using the terminal to execute a script etc yet it provides me no real protection even when in place.

It asks for your password only when something needs to be done that can potentially mess up your system. It's to prevent someone (including yourself) from doing something they shouldn't without interfering with the rest of the system. You should never really see this except for system updates, which are rare, or when mucking about with things deep in the system in which case you should be expert enough to understand why you're entering your password.
I am with the others: a global password which prevents reflashing is a bad idea. There's two very likely points of failure: either I enter a password, and then forget it when the system crashes and I need to reflash; or some scrupulous person sets the password without my knowledge, and then I'm screwed if the system crashes.
I mean, no desktop or laptop, indeed no other computer I can think of, has the level of protection you are asking for. What makes the Pandora so special that you would force these risks on other people?

I thoroughly understand the risks here and would not ever wish to 'force' this on anyone. I would however like it as an option personally.

I can also see how an unscrupulous person could mess this up in person, or perhaps via hacking over unsecured internet. Its not something I could forget though and I happen to like the idea that if the Pandora is lost or stolen, then failure to enter the basic log in password (which I activate when out) will prompt a message to return the unit to its owner (as Pleng was intimating) and thereafter the unit is effectively dead, as if they cant crack the log in password they also cannot simply reflash the unit as a bypass to having a sellable unit (something PokeParadox was lucky over).

I like the idea they are left with a useless paperweight and the basic info on the SD cards only. Hopefully the paperweight will hold enough intrigue for them to find out 'whatever it is' and 'what its normally capable of' and they then wish to actually buy a new unit, to the benefit of OPT. In the process they may discover a member of the community wants model # X back and by that time they are too busy on their new interest to mug people with interesting looking gadgets to bother feeding their heroin addiction.

As to what makes Pandora special above other desktops/laptops?

I guess we are both too privileged here but as I cant speak for you, I shall say that I have never waited almost 2 years for either of the above, nor ever received a pocketable one, built purely as a 'what if we could' dream by a few scattered and dedicated people based on community ideas that are potentially free of corporate ideologies, constraints and general lacklustre! So yes, Prometheus is right below.

^ I'm no mind-reader, so this is just a guess, but, perhaps the rarity at this time could be a factor in the specialness?

Rarity yes, for now but uniqueness above that! Its unusual and versatile and for now not commonplace, hence it does attract attention where demand cannot be currently met. Its price will become its RRP but those first units were worth alot in the wrongs hands on ebay. I'd rather they have a paperweight for now by an optional simple password system on its basic workarounds unbrickability (which gives 2 selling points, easily fixed, yet only by you).

Sorry to waste anyones time with this anyway, as I realise its not something likely to be implemented. The boards are pretty quiet though, so its something to read.