Slashdot Mirror

The story just hit ABC News, via the Associated Press: "McAfee Antivirus Program Goes Berserk, Reboots PCs" There are stories on the Huffington Post and NextGov. The story just broke into mainstream news in the last hour. It just hit the New York Times.

There's nothing on McAfee's home page about this yet. No items in their "News" or "Threat Center" or "Breaking Advisory" sections. There's supposedly a McAfee Knowledge Base article, "False positive detection of w32/wecorl.a in 5958 DAT", but their knowledge base site is overloaded. When it eventually loads, there's a download link to a patch. But there's nothing like an apology. All they say is "Problem: Blue screen or DCOM error, followed by shutdown messages after updating to the 5958 DAT on April 21, 2010."

McAfee has botched their damage control. They should be out there apologizing. Meanwhile, you can watch McAfee stock drop.

BEING one of the board of directors makes him a little more than just a holder of 7% of the stock . . .

http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/bios/steve_jobs.html

Leaving aside the usual nonsense that kids today are worthless and can't do anything right, ...

Leaving aside that this story, A Cheating Crisis in America's Schools, by ABC Primetime, seems to indicate that this statement is basically true. More importantly, they don't seem to care.

"Whether or not you did it or not, if you can get the jury to say that you're not guilty, you're free," said Will, a student at one of the top public high schools in the nation.

Mary, a student at a large university in the South, said, "A lot of people think it's like you're not really there to learn anything. You're just learning to learn the system."

"There's other people getting better grades than me and they're cheating. Why am I not going to cheat? It's kind of almost stupid if you don't," said Joe.

A business student at a top state university, said, "Everything is about the grade that you got in the class. Nobody looks at how you got it." He graduates in a few weeks and will go on to a job with a top investment firm.

Others see it as a sort of moral relativity. Some students feel it is perfectly OK to cheat in some situations and in some courses.

"You'll have an engineer say, 'You know, what do I need to know about English literature? I shouldn't have to take this course,' " said Don McCabe, a professor who heads the center for academic integrity at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

For Mary's classmate Pam, it was a different sort of prioritizing. "You don't want to be a dork and study for eight hours a day. You want to go out and have fun."

It goes on and on...

an arrest warrant was issued for noted military leader, statesman, father of the nation, and library scofflaw George Washington.

noted separatist, terrorist and traitor. Fixed that for ya, eh?

an arrest warrant was issued for noted military leader, statesman, father of the nation, and library scofflaw George Washington.

Do you really think that the same people who would expel a 9th grade girl for bringing a butter knife to school can be trusted to be rational with this kind of information?

Use the same software to predict which teachers are going to act like idiots, and intervene before that happens?

Recursion FTW!

Suppose those factors like increased absences and a couple of minor contacts with police indicate that Johnny is extremely likely to drop out of school. Maybe that's a good hint that someone needs to talk to Johnny and see if something correctable is going on in his life.

But that's not what's happening in our schools already; Just look at the Zero Tolerance statutes!

Do you really think that the same people who would expel a 9th grade girl for bringing a butter knife to school can be trusted to be rational with this kind of information?

Even though it's costly, pouring more money at schools, providing teachers with the means to do their job well is the only method that has a track record of actually raising the education levels. Not true at all.. money does not have a good track record at all.. And while many people say, "We need to spend more money on our schools," there actually isn't a link between spending and student achievement. Jay Greene, author of "Education Myths," points out that "If money were the solution, the problem would already be solved ... We've doubled per pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, over the last 30 years, and yet schools aren't better." http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338 Parents DO need to get involved.. can we easily force them to? Doubt it, but throwing more money at it wont solve it either.. maybe stricter discipline in the classroom

Automation, better design, voluntary social networks and limited demand mean that the value of most human labor is rapidly decreasing. Implicit in your comments is the assumption we need everyone to be working to produce all the goods and services we need (or want). But, that assumption is less and less true. Depending on who you believe and how you define unemployment, unemployment in the USA right now is somewhere between 10% and about 25%. Further, compared to a century or two ago, when children worked in factories and mines, and practically no one "retired", and practically no one went to college or graduate school, and people worked 70 hour work week (in factories or on farms), unemployment now could be thought of as 50% to 75% or higher compared to a century ago. The fact is, compared to then, essentially nobody in the USA is working, and those who work are not doing very much of it. It's true that if you go back to hunter/gatherer times (see Marshall Sahlins), you'll find a similar pattern (only some worked, and then it was not very hard).

For example, look at this video of a robot arm throwing a cell phone into the air and catching it, and tell me that most human labor will be needed in manufacturing in twenty years:
http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/08/03/high-speed-robot-hand-demonstrates-dexterity-and-skillful-manipulation
Even China is starting to have issues with manufacturing unemployment. How long before many services go the same way as agriculture and manufacturing? Yet our entire schooling system is still oriented around turning out mostly factory workers and soldiers.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm

Anyway, so I think current trends show that work has long been going away (even as demand has increased greatly up to a point). Further, in the USA, most people have long gone past the point of diminishing returns for more stuff and bigger homes to the point of negative returns (due to the destruction of community and family) -- even as some 10% to 20% of the US population has been left out of that and is relatively impoverished and would benefit greatly from more stuff.
"The Culture of Affluence: Psychological Costs of Material Wealth"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950124/
"Children of the Affluent: Challenges to Well-Being"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1948879/

The happiest places in the world usually have both material abundance and strong social programs:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=7585729&page=1
"According to a 2005 editorial, published in the British Medical Journal and authored by Dr. Tony Delamothe, research done in Mexico, Ghana, Sweden, the U.S. and the U.K. shows that individuals typically get richer during their lifetimes, but not happier. It is family, social and community networks that bring joy to one's life, according to Delamothe. "

Some related links:
http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
http://users.ipfw.edu/ruflethe/american.html
http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/abolition.html
http://educationanddemocracy.org/FSCfiles/C_CC2a_TripleRevolution.htm

Yes, I'm so glad all those wealth-holders are paying their taxes!

...multiple-personality-disorder isn't a defense.

Maybe yes, maybe no...

Don't follow regulations and unless you've got a Congressman in your pocket, you can go to jail.

Don't follow regulations and people die.

The mine that exploded last night was owned by a company who's making huge profits, but has a piss-poor record of following safety regulations, especially regs that concern the buildup of methane. Thanks to the mine owners' greed and blatant disrespect for life and law, two dozen hard working men are dead.

Don't give me this "there are too many regulations" shit. If you can't follow the regs, you're in the wrong business.

I'm journaling about this later today, I need to vent. If you own stock in that mining company, you're accomplice to mass murder.

So it might take quite a bit of publicity to get a population aware of the meaning of a siren. It would be especially difficult in the vicinity of a good beach, where much of the population could be vacationers and tourists. And standardizing such things would be difficult in much of the world.

How about:

Civil defense sirens blared in each county of Hawaii starting at 6 a.m. Hawaiian time as residents and tourists calmly began leaving their coastline homes and resorts and moving to higher ground. It was the first widespread evacuation for a tsunami in 16 years. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Chile_Earthquake/tsunami-warning-hawaii-islands-brace-waves-hit/story?id=9964404

Seems like most everyone knew what it meant..

Those active cameras are mostly as deterrent against crime;

That really hasn't been proven, and the dispute has been posted here on slashdot at least a few times.

Effective at Documenting Crime, Less Effective at Reducing It

But have they been effective at cutting crime?

According to a British Home Office review of dozens of studies analyzing the cameras' value at reducing crime, half showed a negative or negligible effect and the other half showed a negligible decrease of 4 percent at most. Researchers found that crime in Glasgow, Scotland, actually increased by 9 percent after cameras were installed there.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3360287&page=2

They only appear to be helpful after the fact, and only if they're pointed in the correct direction when the crime occurred. (same article)

I could drag up more, but google is your friend.

since the entire mess around surveillance is in the wrong hands to create confidence with the general public.

That's because the right hands do not exist.

It's a flippant reply, but you know it's right.

--
BMO

Welcome to the Hall of Presidents.

Why doesn't the same principle apply here?

The only principal that ever applies is that rich, litigious people and institutions get whatever they want.

In a democratic society, they couch their whims into bite sized "causes" with simple-seeming resolutions that the populace can get behind to reduce the effort the upper class has to put into getting their way, such as "copyright infringement starving all the poor artists" or "carbon emissions destroying the environment" or "Lack of Christian Values (and influence) in our schools leading to bedlam". Then they just sit back, nudge where they feel they need to, and drive popular opinion towards their destinations.

This is why when the rich are hoist by their own petard: be it homophobic GOP senators and leaders of the church buying meth from their male prostitutes, or music studios caught mass-infringing their own artists' copyright, or (alleged) copyright holders perjuring DMCA provisions by issuing fraudulent takedown notices (be it for IP address confusion, or just as often for scattershot pissing in the pool) you never hear more than a "gotcha" headline about the matter, and then nothing after that ever changes. The power of these "causes" are always directly proportional to wealthy, influential people orchestrating them to suit their particular needs.

IP's being poor relation to individuals (or IP's listed at tracker being poor relation to actually participating clients) mean nothing to the powers that seek to waylay citizens with the cultural blunt trauma of Intellectual Property. They don't have to explain themselves, they don't have to make sense, they just have to have more resources than you and occasionally convince a cadre of crazies Glenn Beck style that they are in the right in order to keep their own hands clean while you are beaten.

They didn't do so well either....

Colorado Woman Celebrates $42 Million Slot Machine Win Until Casino Says Machine Malfunctioned
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/colorado-42-mil-jackpot-winner-jack/story?id=10235836

Extensive background radiation studies by IBM in the 1990s suggest that computers typically experience about one cosmic-ray-induced error per 256 megabytes of RAM per month. If so, a superstorm, with its unprecedented radiation fluxes, could cause widespread computer failures.

You have to fix this though. As a large manufacturer you have to accept this risk just like your competitors do. Airlines accept this risk and triple check their data because people's lives are at risk. As a car manufacturer, you are in the exact same position.

I hope the fix they already rolled out as a recall includes triple checking data or -- if the article is correct -- we won't see a drop in these horrible accidents. I hope for drivers and public safety that it does. It's led to death and possibly wrongful incarceration. Restitution is in order. Take testing motor vehicles seriously.

You think that's bad? Follow the link in TFA to the next story, about the cancelled Israeli raid.

Seriously, think about this. Last week, you could easily be denied life saving treatment because you had the audacity to move to a different county. And you're telling me you're less free now?

Yeah, you might pay a little more. But a very large number of Americans are actually, in reality, more free now, because they don't have to live in fear of insurance getting canceled.

"I think you’re a little bit mistaken on this one. Churches have to be careful about their political stance or they do risk losing non-profit status."

No he isn't. Churches have deliberately violated this law to force the issue. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5198068&page=1
It has not been enforced. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30391105/
So on paper it is a rule. In real life, not so much.

"Of course, if there is only one pro-life candidate and the church is staunchly pro-life, we both know which candidate they’ll want you to vote for, but they still have to emphasize the issue, not the candidate."

And the actually practical difference is what exactly? Sure they obeyed the letter of the law. But they sure as hell violated the intent.

Back then it was just an experiment. Cool to see it being used in practice. Here is the link that goes to ABC news:

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2401551&page=1

Also, technically he's not a "soldier". He's a "marine". Us Army guys are "soliders" :)

You obviously don't read the news.
Oct. 3, 2008
Wells Fargo Buys Wachovia for $15.1 Billion [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/SmartHome/story?id=5946486&page=1]

Buzz Aldrin is channeling his urge to explore in the dance studio.

buzz

ESPN is working through these issues as we speak. (See the last section - "The premium-vs.-public debate") Except, they're trying to decide for which content they should charge.

Take a closer look at the page? Does it say Disney on it?

Many of Disney's properties have their web presence on go.com. For instance:

http://abc.go.com/

(and someone already pointed out ESPN)

You may have heard of the following sites:
http://espn.go.com/
http://disney.go.com/index
http://abcnews.go.com/

You may have heard of the following sites:
http://espn.go.com/
http://disney.go.com/index
http://abcnews.go.com/

You may have heard of the following sites:
http://espn.go.com/
http://disney.go.com/index
http://abcnews.go.com/

The front page www does indeed seem worthless, but http://espn.go.com/ and http://disney.go.com/ and http://abcnews.go.com/ look like they would account for traffic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go.com has some info.

The front page www does indeed seem worthless, but http://espn.go.com/ and http://disney.go.com/ and http://abcnews.go.com/ look like they would account for traffic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go.com has some info.

The front page www does indeed seem worthless, but http://espn.go.com/ and http://disney.go.com/ and http://abcnews.go.com/ look like they would account for traffic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go.com has some info.

I misread that as "Monitor Pirate Bay torrents of TODAY" and wondered who could've incurred the wrath of Comcast. Or Al Roker.

(Do not piss off Roker. He can control the weather and make you cry.)

Arthur Brooks, the author of "Who Really Cares," says that "when you look at the data, it turns out the conservatives give about 30 percent more." He adds, "And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money."

[Citation]

"A classified review of the United States Secret Service's computer technology found that the agency's computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. "
(loc. cit.)

CC.

Yeah, I was getting ready to post this.

In the most tragic incident, on the day after Christmas, four people died in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, when a 2008 Toyota sped off the road, through a fence and landed upside down in a pond. The car's floor mats were found in the trunk of the car, where owners had been advised to put them as part of the recall.

Okay...

The Italian legal system is a FARCE. The more I hear about how it operates the more I dislike it. How can the Italian people accept it? They found Amanda Knox guilty after they already confirmed who the real perpetrator was.

Shame on Italy. Not that I'm in love with Google, but you guys are fucking stupid with your legal system.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyotas/toyota-acceleration-problems-new-evidence-imprisoned-minnesota-toyota-camry-owner/story?id=9903455

This guy apparently killed a few people and got put in jail for it. Now it looks like he was telling the truth when he said the car wouldn't stop.

What if you do have a chronic illness though? What are you supposed to do then? And I would dispute that any normal person could save enough to pay for long term cancer treatment. Breast cancer treatment could be over $100,000. Finally, what about the people who don't plan carefully? Do they deserve to suffer and die because of their lack of foresight?

http://espn.go.com/action/news/story?id=4921916 "....Rule 41 in the International Olympic Committee's charter, the so-called "Blackout Rule," which bans competitors, coaches, trainers and officials participating in the Olympics from using their name or image for advertising during the Games. Only those whose sponsors pony up a substantial sum to be an official Olympic sponsor receive an exemption from the IOC's executive board."

If you don't have a Masters degree or equivalent in a physical science, then you are absolutely not qualified to interpret any climate data or its validity, so stop trying.

Excuse me sir, but your logical fallacy is showing.

I refer you to the Sept 16, 2009 game between the Angels and the Red Sox, where Nick Green got 5 strikes before walking?

Well there's the kid who got suspended from medical college for calling himself a white African American, though he's from Mozambique, not SA.

So they found something in 4 of 7 B samples. They found NOTHING in 7 of 7 A samples.

Sounds like the test is bullshit. Results appear non-repeatable with identical samples.

Actually, the poorly-written ESPN article says 1 of 7 "A" samples tested positive using a different testing method from the "B" samples:

• July 20: Stage 17, a mountain stage finishing in Morzine: This was Landis' comeback stage in which he left the peloton behind with a solo breakaway. He made up 8 minutes and scrambled back into second place overall, 30 seconds behind Pereiro.
  USADA: Landis' "A" and "B" samples exceeded the allowable 4-to-1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio and showed the presence of synthetic testosterone.

Also, as this article explains, different tests are used for the "A" and "B" samples. The "A" tests are just a "rough" test that measures the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E ratio) to see if it's abnormal enough to trigger the more stringent "B" test (which actually measures for synthetic testosterone). A "normal" T/E ratio is 1-to-1, but anything below 4-to-1 is declared "negative," so a steroid user can pass the "A" test as long as they don't overdo it.

During the initial Tour de France testing, only 1 "B" sample was tested at all because only 1 "A" sample tested positive (triggering the "B" test). All of the "B" samples were tested later because the USADA requested it for the trial.

So they found something in 4 of 7 B samples. They found NOTHING in 7 of 7 A samples.

Sounds like the test is bullshit. Results appear non-repeatable with identical samples.

Actually, the poorly-written ESPN article says 1 of 7 "A" samples tested positive using a different testing method from the "B" samples:

• July 20: Stage 17, a mountain stage finishing in Morzine: This was Landis' comeback stage in which he left the peloton behind with a solo breakaway. He made up 8 minutes and scrambled back into second place overall, 30 seconds behind Pereiro.
  USADA: Landis' "A" and "B" samples exceeded the allowable 4-to-1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio and showed the presence of synthetic testosterone.

Also, as this article explains, different tests are used for the "A" and "B" samples. The "A" tests are just a "rough" test that measures the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E ratio) to see if it's abnormal enough to trigger the more stringent "B" test (which actually measures for synthetic testosterone). A "normal" T/E ratio is 1-to-1, but anything below 4-to-1 is declared "negative," so a steroid user can pass the "A" test as long as they don't overdo it.

During the initial Tour de France testing, only 1 "B" sample was tested at all because only 1 "A" sample tested positive (triggering the "B" test). All of the "B" samples were tested later because the USADA requested it for the trial.

This a positive step in the right direction. I always felt that by George W. Bush touting bio fuels through corn was exceedingly stupid and shortsighted - even for him.

Yeah, it's a shame he never mentioned switchgrass.

Oh, wait....

Sure there is. There's the USADA finding synthetic testosterone in 4 out of 7 'B' samples, while Landis' coterie of lawyers wailed how unfair it was to run the synthetic tests on his B samples when his other A samples had shown clean. That's like complaining that the cops found weed in your glove compartment when you hadn't left any lying out on the dash.

No, it's complaining that if the tests are so shoddy and/or temperamental that they only find something in half of one sample, and none in the other, ie 3/4 of the samples show nothing, you must believe the 1/4 which show something.

If a jury votes 9-3 for acquittal, you must believe the 3 for guilty.

I've been using a Cognitive Dissonance Meter for longer that most people, and it's just gone off the scale. No, you can't see it. It's myCognitive Dissonance Meter. You'll just have to trust me.

And there's more.

Sure there is. There's the USADA finding synthetic testosterone in 4 out of 7 'B' samples, while Landis' coterie of lawyers wailed how unfair it was to run the synthetic tests on his B samples when his other A samples had shown clean. That's like complaining that the cops found weed in your glove compartment when you hadn't left any lying out on the dash.

I know, it's totally bogus how those underhand Frenchies must have infiltrated the United States Anti-Doping Agency which found synthetic testosterone in 4 out of 7 of Landis' B samples. Will they stop at nothing to sully the names of honourable American athletes?