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User: Anachragnome

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Comments · 1,458

  1. Not picking sides, but there is an awful lot of bullshit in this thread--from both sides of the table.

    On another note, anyone notice that almost all of the many train derailments that have occurred since the first Snowden leak have happened directly on top of rail switches?

  2. Re:I got sent to the beta site again, and I hate i on Proof-of-Concept Malware Captures Every Tap On Smartphones Or Tablets · · Score: 1
  3. Re:How to make your very own Mars. on World's First Magma-Based Geothermal Energy System · · Score: 1

    "The oxygen in the CO2 is atmospheric oxygen, not fossil oxygen. I'd just as soon not get rid of it."

    Excellent point. I concur. Some way to crack the elements apart would be required, but even then the loss of carbon might not be a good idea, nor would it be retrievable.

    But, there still remains the question of this happening spontaneously, without benefit of a space-elevator. Is it possible this process of limnic eruption could occur on a global scale (rather than a lake)? Perhaps a closer look at the evidence from Ceres would help answer that question.

  4. Re:How to make your very own Mars. on World's First Magma-Based Geothermal Energy System · · Score: 1

    "... we already do this on a smaller scale, only it is used to prevent a catastrophic spontaneous degassing (is this a possible outcome of us enriching the atmosphere with CO2?!?"

    Perhaps the recent eruptions of water on Ceres are a result of the same limnic eruption phenomenon seen at Lake Nyos. To be honest, this is somewhat worrying--could this same process occur, here on Earth, if we push the CO2 saturation level too high? A sudden degassing of the atmosphere, into space? Has this happened before, in the Earth's history?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

  5. Re:How to make your very own Mars. on World's First Magma-Based Geothermal Energy System · · Score: 1

    Steps 1 and 2 got me thinking of a possible solution (as they outline a potential problem as well!) to our CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere.

    If one combines the idea of a "Space-elevator" with a thin-walled tube reaching from a base-station/pumping station all the way out of the atmosphere, degassing would take place. The base of the tube would extend into the earth, surrounded by a sleeve that is keep full of atmospheric CO2 and open to the atmosphere at ground level. As CO2 is heavier than other atmospheric gasses, this sleeve would prevent a mixture of gasses from being drawn into the "elevator".

    Before you dismiss the idea offhand, let me point out that we already do this on a smaller scale, only it is used to prevent a catastrophic spontaneous degassing (is this a possible outcome of us enriching the atmosphere with CO2?!?). See linked article on degassing.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

    The diagram provided in the article is a suitable representation of what I just described, the low pressure area being space, and the high pressure area being the sleeve located at the base station/anchor.

    Food for thought.

  6. Re:The real news on Yahoo Mail Resets Account Passwords After Attack · · Score: 1

    "I wonder how desperate for attention one must be to confess a security breach just to be in some news."

    Do you really think that was the goal? Advertising a security breach? It isn't really anything novel these days--everyone is doing it. We've become bored with the very idea.

    More than likely, they are simply trying to determine who is using which account. They release this sort of announcement to get users to simply interact in any way, be that changing your password or even trying to do so. This way, they can tell which accounts are active, and by whom. A complete data refresh keeps the data valuable.

  7. Re:This can't possibly go wrong. on Startup Out of MIT Promises Digital Afterlife — Just Hand Over Your Data · · Score: 1

    ""Honey? Your dad's on the phone again..."

    Maybe in a few years I'll be able to download George Carlin, fire him up on my iPeople, and chew the fat for awhile.

    I miss George.

  8. Re:And the colllusion continues... on Is Amazon Making a Sub-$300 Console To Play Mobile Games? · · Score: 1

    "Countly -- LIBYA!!....serious wtf here. All contact info is for Libyan addresses.
    https://count.ly/products/feat..."

    It appears that even Countly--apparently based in Libya--has it's connections to San Francisco in the form of angel investor Philipp Moehring.

    https://angel.co/countly

    I say apparently, because I suspect that this might be a case of domain usage to hide the actual country doing the collecting of data, a situation made possible by "reserved" domains and the secondary domain market. Simply put, Countly may have nothing to do with Libya at all.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....

  9. Re:And the colllusion continues... on Is Amazon Making a Sub-$300 Console To Play Mobile Games? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes.

  10. And the colllusion continues... on Is Amazon Making a Sub-$300 Console To Play Mobile Games? · · Score: 1, Informative

    This is another indication of how eager the tech industry is to get in on the same monetization model that Rovio was just implicated in with the Snowden documents--data for dollars.

    Rovio was just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone is trying to get involved in a "goldrush" of funds that have infused the industry with a serious lack of morality.

    As I pointed out in a couple of posts recently ( http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... ), it is the mobile analytics market that the NSA is targeting for their data on as many people as possible. Those analytics providers are doing what the NSA cannot do themselves legally--gather data. Analytics providers do the gathering, and the NSA either steals or buys the data. It's as simple as that folks.

    The really dirty secret is that pretty much every company out there with an internet presence and a mobile presence (an app) is complicit in this gathering of data, and they all know it. Both The New York Times and The Guardian use the exact same analytics firm that Rovio uses in their mobile game "Angry Birds", yet they are the ones that published articles based on Edward Snowden documents outlining NSA activity that targeted mobile analytics. Hypocrites.

    Just to give you an idea of just how big this iceberg is, dig deep in the following webpages--they outline, by connections, a web of investors and customers that are perpetrating a global auction of our privacy.

    Amazon -- Seattle, Wa.
    https://developer.amazon.com/s...

    Jaspersoft -- San Francisco, CA.
    https://www.jaspersoft.com/mob...

    Google -- San Francisco, CA.
    http://www.google.com/analytic...

    Flurry -- San Francisco, CA.
    http://www.flurry.com/flurry-a...

    Localytics -- Boston, MA.
    http://www.localytics.com/

    Countly -- LIBYA!!....serious wtf here. All contact info is for Libyan addresses.
    https://count.ly/products/feat...

    Konitgent -- San Francisco, CA.
    http://www.kontagent.com/compa...

    Webtrends -- Portland, OR.
    http://webtrends.com/solutions...

    Bango -- London, UK
    http://bango.com/corporate/

    Apsalar -- San Francisco, CA.
    https://apsalar.com/

    Piwik -- London, UK
    http://piwik.org/what-is-piwik...

    Mobilytics (Mobivity) -- Chandler, AZ.
    http://www.mobilytics.net/

    Adobe -- San Jose, CA.
    http://www.adobe.com/solutions...

    Openwave Mobility -- Redwood City, CA.
    http://owmobility.com/about-us

    Mixpanel -- San Francisco, CA.
    https://mixpanel.com/

    Urban Airship -- San Francisco/London
    http://urbanairship.com/produc...

    Cognizant -- Teaneck, NJ.
    http://www.cognizant.com/enter...

    Amethon -- Sydney, AU
    http://www.amethon.com/

    The ring to rule them all, if you believe the developers..
    Segment.io -- San Francisco, CA.
    https://segment.io/mobile

    For the inner workings, see linked Whitepaper. A good list of other miscreants is included on that

  11. Re:And the collusion continues.... on NSA and GCHQ Target "Leaky" Phone Apps To Scoop User Data · · Score: 1

    Apparently, The Guardian uses Flurry as well.

    http://www.theguardian.com/hel...

    "Please visit audiencescience.com/privacy.asp, quantcast.com/privacy and flurry.com/privacy-policy.html for the privacy policy of our online behavioural targeting technology providers."(again, my emphasis)

    A quick look at the Propublica privacy policy shows that they use Google, for what that's worth.

  12. Re:And the collusion continues.... on NSA and GCHQ Target "Leaky" Phone Apps To Scoop User Data · · Score: 1

    I think someone at Rovio is pissed...

    At the bottom of this page at the Rovio website...

    http://www.rovio.com/en/news/b... ...are four links to further information regarding privacy policies and FAQs, including a link to The New York Times privacy policy page...WTF?

    http://www.nytimes.com/content...

    If you'll scroll down the section titled "Analytics Technologies", you'll see that The New York Times uses Flurry to track their users, just like Rovio does.

    "We use Localytics and Flurry to track and report on the usage and browsing patterns on some of our mobile applications." (my emphasis)

    In light of the fact that The New York Times were one of the three media outlets that initially released the Snowden documents regarding Rovio tracking users of "Angry Birds" for the NSA, the irony of their articles only now becomes apparent.

    I'm guessing Rovio added that link to the NYT privacy statement fairly recently (like, yesterday), but I don't have a cache of that page to know for sure.

    But, yeah...Pot, meet Kettle.

  13. Re:And the collusion continues.... on NSA and GCHQ Target "Leaky" Phone Apps To Scoop User Data · · Score: 1

    The folks behind the tracking...

    According to Rovio's own site, they use Flurry for data acquisition:

    "In addition to the information covered above, we use Flurry Analytics in most games to collect gameplay-related information and technical data. This is a common analytics component, used widely in mobile gaming - for more information see www.flurry.com."

    From the Flurry site, one will find the following code used by "Angry Birds" to track users:

    http://support.flurry.com/sdkd...

    Above code is part of larger cache of code documentation related to Flurry Analytics:

    http://support.flurry.com/inde...

  14. Re:You read /. so you already knew this right? on NSA and GCHQ Target "Leaky" Phone Apps To Scoop User Data · · Score: 1

    "Page 16 http://www.techarp.com/article..."

    Mod up Informative, please.

  15. And the collusion continues.... on NSA and GCHQ Target "Leaky" Phone Apps To Scoop User Data · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the following linked article:
    "During a recent interview session I had with Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer for digital security company F-Secure Corp, he shared that he was friends with the men behind Rovio, the creators behind another massive success story--Angry Birds."

    http://www.thestar.com.my/stor...

    A couple of years ago I tried, in earnest, to inform Mikko Hypponen of evidence I had acquired (first-hand) that proved that Sony Entertainment was gathering data from computers that had Sony software installed, after being referred to him by Mark Russinovich (of Microsoft/Sysinternals fame). I was stone-walled completely, even after providing crash-dumps that held all the evidence he needed to go public-- now, I know why.

  16. Re:Sure, to lower paying jobs on The Luddites Are Almost Always Wrong: Why Tech Doesn't Kill Jobs · · Score: 1

    For those of you wondering...US CPI weighting.

    http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_09142012.pdf

    For an interesting comparison, take a look at India's weighting, which includes a rural and urban differentiation.

    http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/brochure_n_cpi18_feb11.pdf

  17. Re:A challenge. on Japan's Nuclear Refugees, Still Stuck In Limbo · · Score: 0, Troll

    "I thought the subject was Fukushima, which is NOT "a threat to all life on our planet"

    You don't see four nuclear reactors leaking radioactive substances directly into the ocean as a threat to life on this planet? Do you realize that TEPCO has no plan to even decommission these reactors, let alone clean up the mess that they have now? I don't think you realize the seriousness of the situation. This is potentially far greater then Chernobyl. There are four reactors, all the associated hardware and 4 spent fuel-rod cooling pools still suspended in the I-beams of those blasted reactor buildings. One serious earthquake can simply topple those cooling pools, dumping the contents all over the site. There is no current plan to remove those spent rods--they just sit there.

    Seriously, nobody has any idea what to do about this. All TEPCO is doing is slowing the flow of leaks and stockpiling the water they collect, water flowing off an entire mountain--they have no plan whatsoever to deal with the reactors themselves, or the storage ponds.

    TEPCO is in charge of this mess...and they do next to nothing. Do you have any better ideas?

  18. A challenge. on Japan's Nuclear Refugees, Still Stuck In Limbo · · Score: 0, Troll

    I propose a challenge.

    I challenge the wealthy individuals that have made The Giving Pledge to fix this problem.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge

    These people are the wealthiest people on the planet. They have the greatest level of resources available to them, both in the form of personal wealth and that of continued control of the worlds most powerful--and capable--corporations on the planet.

    I challenge you--those that have made the pledge--to set aside your differences, political and financial aspirations and solve this problem. Forever. Just get it done.

    The world is watching.You have the greatest opportunity to solve this threat, a threat to all life on our planet. NOW is the time to show the rest of the world just what kind of people you are, to show your moral fiber and to return some of your wealth to those that made it possible, and to do so in probably the most profound way possible--everyone stands to gain from such an act.

    Time to put your money where your mouths are and start giving, not just your money but your corporations as well. Get them working on this problem. Use your connections to cut through the TEPCO bureaucracy, through the government red-tape. Use your patents and technologies to the greatest effect.

    If you really want to help the world, the time is now.

    Thank you.

  19. Re:Incapsula on Another 100 Gigabit DDoS Attack Strikes — This Time Unreflected · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "....this reads like a brochure for Incapsula's services..."

    http://bgp.he.net/AS19551#_whois

    Well, I imagine most US server farms are hurting pretty bad right now, what with all the NSA luvin' going around over here. Now imagine a company that has all of it's servers in the US, Israel and Germany (with a few in Japan)--in light of recent revelations regarding NSA spying--and maybe you'll understand why Incapsula is paying for ads/articles all over the damn place, including /.

    They are fucked, and this marketing blitz is a Hail-Mary attempt to save their ass from the fire that Snowden just lit under it. Personally, I love a good BBQ.

  20. Re:But but but, the PIRACY!!!! on GTA V Makes $800 Million In 24 Hours · · Score: 1

    "Wait, so this means they also lost $2.2Billion to piracy then?"

    I think it's safe to say they can blame themselves for this--after all, their fan-base has had abundant exposure to the idea that stealing can actually be Fun and Entertaining!.

    C'mon, nowhere else would I have come up with stealing a Cessna from the local airport with the sole purpose of crashing it into ground-troops in an effort to steal a military attack-chopper right off their base helipad...and be successful.

    Prism Disclosure: It's a game, guys. Not makin' any suggestions.

  21. Re:Except for Joseph Nacchio of Qwest on Secret Court Upholds Phone Data Collection · · Score: 3, Insightful

    " Nacchio was a hero, and no one even noticed."

    I did.

    And, if he ever runs for office (don't care which one) in a district I can legally vote, he has my vote. Same goes for Ladar Levison (Lavabit). When it comes to politicians, actions are all that matters--what they say can no longer be trusted. Granted, these guys are not politicians, but as far as I am concerned they've already met the requirement for pretty much any position they could hold in government, that requirement being at least a scrap of social-responsibility and morality.

  22. Re:I don't believe that GM is serious about an EV on Can GM Challenge Tesla With a Long-Range Electric Car? · · Score: 1

    Answered my own question.

    Apparently, Slashdot reduced the time between posts to 60 seconds, for logged-in users.

  23. Re:I don't believe that GM is serious about an EV on Can GM Challenge Tesla With a Long-Range Electric Car? · · Score: 1

    Testing!

    1 Minute since last post!

  24. Re:I don't believe that GM is serious about an EV on Can GM Challenge Tesla With a Long-Range Electric Car? · · Score: 1

    Posting here because I cannot think of a better place to do so.

    Not that I like being called a liar, and my intent is not to slam Geekoid over his/her views, but isn't there a posting rate-wall? You know, "Slow down, Cowboy!" or whatever it says when you post too fast? Isn't it around 4-5 minutes between posts?

    Take a look at Geekoid's Firehose (click his name, then Firehose in the upper-left) and take a look back through his posts. There are times when he somehow manages to post four times in as many minutes. I try to do that and I get served notice by Slashdot. Yet, for some reason he seems to post like that often, including several times today.

    How is that possible?

  25. Re:betteridge's law of headline on Can GM Challenge Tesla With a Long-Range Electric Car? · · Score: 1

    "is GM going to continue developing and improving electric cars?"

    Sure, in a way devised to give the impression of good intent, while they do the opposite behind closed doors.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

    I'm beginning to think that 99% of the lies out there are a product of the 1% running the planet.