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User: laughingskeptic

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  1. The subsidies are per-customer. There are buildings full of old-fashioned switches that cost far more to operate than the sum of the related subsidies. The phone companies can't decommission these facilities until they drive away or convert the last related customer. The unions "of course" want to keep the facilities running for as long as possible.

  2. Careless to use the tools? on Probe Of Leaked US NSA Hacking Tools Examines Operative's Mistake (reuters.com) · · Score: 2

    The operative's job requires them to place their tools on remote machines. That is how you make progress on a hack. I'm guessing they had a 'favorite' bundle that they deployed rather than trying tools one at a time like they were probably supposed to.

  3. Unruh radiation on NASA's Impossible Propulsion EmDrive Is Heading to Space (popularmechanics.com) · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This paper has a possible explanation that was ignored by the article. If the EMDrive works, then the same explanation likely also applies to some of the galactic rotational observations that are used to justify the need for dark matter.

    http://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.0344...

  4. The original paper on Arxiv on Researchers Map Locations of 4,669 Servers In Netflix's Content Delivery Network (ieee.org) · · Score: 1

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/1606.05519v1.pdf

    Related slides:

    http://eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~boettget/mapping-netflix-coseners16.pdf

  5. Re:No such thing as a .20 gauge on 65-Year-Old Woman Shoots Down Drone Over Her Virginia Property With One Shot (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    Wrong. Gauge means diameter. The term you are referring to is "load". http://www.nssfblog.com/firsts...

  6. State of Minnesota reccomends Canadian Pharms on US Patients Battle EpiPen Prices And Regulations By Shopping Online (cnn.com) · · Score: 2

    They even had a state website that pointed directly to Canadian pharmacies for several years: http://www.amednews.com/articl... . I used their list to choose my Canadian pharmacy and still use them when it makes financial sense.

  7. Pivot honeypot more likely on Snowden Speculates Leak of NSA Spying Tools Is Tied To Russian DNC Hack (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    It would be easier to get the tools off of a honeypot that was set up to entice the use of the tools rather than to get them by hacking the Equation Group. If you want the Equation Group's tools all you have to do is convince them that they have found a chink in the armor of a high value target. Let them own a computer (referred to as the pivot in the hacking world) that seems to have access to further hardened targets. The tools will start appearing. A Potemkin honeypot.

  8. We use small fraction of solar flux on Earth's Resources Used Up at Quickest Rate Ever in 2016 (france24.com) · · Score: 1

    The sun shines a continuous 175x10^15 watts on the planet, by this number we are undershooting by a few orders of magnitude. If 7.125x10^9 people each used a continuous 24.5 megawatts we could manage to eventually consume all the earths energy resources for people and nothing but people.

  9. Easy-In Easy-Out on Dark Patterns Across the Web Are Designed To Trick You · · Score: 1

    The Easy-Out is to go straight to your credit card company and assert that the charge was unauthorized. This puts the vendor using the dark pattern on the defensive. If your bank is a major bank and the vendor has too many unauthorized charge reports they could face loosing charge processing privileges that would impact their bottom line and motivate them to change their ways. Don't fall for the Difficult-Out trap, use the 900 pound gorilla in your corner. My credit card companies have always been very responsive to these complaints and I have always eventually (e.g. 120 days) been notified that my account has been credited with very little effort on my part and the process being driven by the credit card company.

  10. Guess IOC didn't read Twitter's ToS on Olympics Committee Says Non-Sponsors Are Banned From Tweeting About the Olympics (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    With regard to the Olympics' official twitter account, anything that the IOC posts can't be restricted in this manner as is very clear in clause 5 of the Twitter ToS. https://twitter.com/tos?lang=e...

  11. State.gov FISMA Audit results overview on The FBI Recommends Not To Indict Hillary Clinton For Email Misconduct (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Sad reading:

    p. 122, Section III, Subsection "INSPECTOR GENERAL’S ASSESSMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES", Subsubsection "Information and Security Management" http://www.state.gov/documents...

  12. Re:Sign 'I don't agree' on all HR paperwork on Bill Guarantees 50% Salary For Workers Laid Off With Non-Compete (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Yep, HR doesn't tend to have the brightest or hardest working. My prior job required signing a non-compete. I told them I wanted to discuss the wording with my attorney and would get back to them ... which I didn't. They didn't ask about it until they laid me off 13 years later. At which point they asked me to sign a non-compete and again I told them I would get back to them. Once my severance check arrived I didn't worry about it. I called my bank and informed them that they were no longer my employer just to make sure there couldn't be an easy reach back.

  13. Re:In other news the sun is hot. on New Device Sold On The Dark Web Can Clone Up To 15 Contactless Cards Per Second (softpedia.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure how they accomplish this, but I know there are hackers in Europe who have figured out how to determine CVVs of US credit cards. I suspect some sort of brute force against an improperly configured local cache somewhere in the validation system. The credit card processing systems we have were created before the internet and contain architectural elements and complexity that would be unnecessary if designed from scratch today.

  14. Effectively requires root on RSA Keys Can Be Harvested With Microphones (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    In order to obtain the laboratory effect of single threaded decryption of 4,096 approximately 1Mbit files in sequence you would have to be root and generally have all "messy" asynchronous processing such as interrupts from the network card disabled. This is a lab-only non-realistic attack. If you had that much control over the CPU you might as well just read the key out of the registers as it is used.

  15. Re:Roll back? on North Korea Linked to the SWIFT Bank Hacks (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    I'm sure it was quickly used to purchase pre-positioned shell companies which lived only long enough to perform further transactions. If the world's banks all operated on a nice block-chain then one could follow the trail. But in order to follow the trail of nested shell companies one would have to be able to track the activities of every crooked attorney at every courthouse in the world. My solution is banks should only interact with whitelisted entities rather than relying on national and various other blacklists. Before the internet era, this would have been very difficult. But today, it would not be that hard to maintain a whitelist. Some banks might chose to do business with unverifiable companies, but then they should also be the ones who are out of pocket when a large transaction involving one of their dubious clients needs to be reversed.

  16. It is a video of a performance. Copyright law is pretty clear in assigning the copyright to the camera holder when there are no other terms. Nintendo also would not be able to legally issue a takedown.

  17. Go schizo on them on Ask Slashdot: Should I Expect Tracking When Subscribing To News Sites? · · Score: 1

    I maintain multiple personalities by using different browsers and starting browsers as different local users. Each personality has its own email account with an empty address book that receives unread spam. For my general web surfing and news reading I use this account. I couldn't care less how tracked it is, it has nothing to do with my work life or my personal life. In addition, I do not have any browser extensions installed for most of these personalities.

  18. Cruz didn't think this through on With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate, Cruz's H-1B Stance Now In Question (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't put my life as the only obstacle to Carly Fiorina's presidency.

  19. Re:Missed the point on New Heating Technology Uses Seawater and Carbon Dioxide (csmonitor.com) · · Score: 1

    The CO2 heat pump generates 1800 PSI over a base pressure of 600 PSI. In other words, there is an explosion hazard that has to be considered when engineering these systems and maintenance will be more difficult, seals will fail more quickly, etc.

  20. Automobile manufactures won't come out and give you a car if you call them and complain everyday, but cell phone companies will give you a femtocell for your house if you call them and complain every day. With the femtocell and sk1lz you have access to the cell phone network.

  21. Minecraft will not interest girls in science on Microsoft Sending Minecraft To Summer School · · Score: 1

    It has been shown that girls want to know how science applies to making the world a better place. Minecraft is not going to accomplish this and will probably even be counter productive since it has nothing to do with reality. Our teachers are so poor that they fail at making this simple connection between the material to be taught and the application to the world that motivates girls. You want to motivate a girl in materials science, you tell her how lighter stronger materials make cars safer and save thousands of lives. For biology you tell her how fundamental research leads to life saving drugs. You give real examples of real women who have done these things. This is what is needed in the classroom, not a game.

  22. Re:The secret to radio bandwidth on DARPA's Latest Grand Challenge Takes On The Radio Spectrum (gizmag.com) · · Score: 1

    Billboards are many meters wide and operate at 545 THz. Its pretty easy to get purely directional signals when you have such extreme scale differences (18 million : 1 ) between the "antenna" (10m) and the frequency (550nm). Your statement "without any interference" falls apart pretty quickly in most radio applications where the antenna size is often a fraction of the wavelength. Check out the plots in this online EE text: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/ele... .

  23. Re:Primary? on FCC Complaints For the 2016 Primary Debates (muckrock.com) · · Score: 1

    You have falsely convolved free speech and money. Are all bribe givers now merely free-speakers?

    Until now, money in politics has long been regulated: https://www.washingtonpost.com... . McCain-Feingold may have been an overreach, but the Supreme Court's resulting decision was extreme and not only struck down McCain-Feingold but also effectively killed other finance regulations going all the way back to 1907's Tillman Act. I stick by my assertion that we are in a new era of campaign finance and that we are going to see more of these multicandidate races and I believe this will evolve into multicandidate non-party races.

  24. Re:Primary? on FCC Complaints For the 2016 Primary Debates (muckrock.com) · · Score: 2

    The Republicans and our Supreme Court may well have destroyed the US's two party system by removing the constraints on political funding. The Republicans shortsightedly thought that they would be the primary benefactors of unrestrained political spending. We are seeing the results. The party no longer dictates the flow of money. Anyone who can tap one deep pocket can make a go of it. 8 years ago, Rubio would have been cut off from funding and forced to exit the election by the party. The party no longer has this control. Now the impotency of the party just has to sink in to the national consciousness. Once it is realized that the parties no longer control the money, they will become much less relevant in this new political funding landscape.

  25. Re:Just ditch sub-second timing resolution on Did a Timer Error Change the Outcome of a Division I College Basketball Game? · · Score: 1

    Human perception and reactions occur at roughly 1/10 of a second, so a 1/10th of second resolution for sports makes sense. I honk at the car in front of me if their brakes are still lit up 2 seconds after the light turns green. That is 20 human perception intervals (which I like to call "I'm waitings") and it is a certainty at that point that they are not paying attention and need a prod to start paying attention.