I'm surprised because Kingston so far has had an extremely good name, especially when it came to RAM. PNY wasn't up there, but at least from what I read, it was decent.
From/. articles and other reviews, I'm thinking if I go with a SSD, it will be Intel. Intel isn't perfect, but they seem to be tops when it comes to SSD reliability.
I believe in the KISS principle. Even though people say that a hacker with the 0-days to go after IoT devices won't go after individual users... I will agree there. Individually, they won't bother with people. However, their script that walks the Internet and seizes control of devices, is what would be done, with that info being sold to another party, just like credit card dumps. In fact, a list of vulnerable/cracked devices a person owns might even be in the same database tuple as their name, social security number, and other item sold on the black market.
There are some things I don't need. I can look at the date of items in my fridge and tell they are going to expire. I don't need to have a fancy infrastructure in place so that some company can sell me milk in the next round of banner ads. I can look near the commode and tell how many rolls of TP that I have, and don't need to upload that info somewhere. I don't need a toilet which checks sugar levels, but quietly uploads that to health insurance companies so they have an excuse to raise premiums. If I'm worried about sugar levels, I can always get a meter and a roll of test strips and do the job right.
We do not need an IoT. We are being sold this shit because "market expansion" balloons stock prices even though it may or may not make revenue.
IoT devices will be engineered to be as cheap to produce as possible. They will be coming out of the cheapest factory in China, and engineered to barely work. At best, they will barely pass UL standards, if they don't just come with a fake UL tag in the first place. It will be a given that there will be little thought to security [1], and the only way to fix them will be replacing them with devices that are even buggier and more expensive.
If we want monitoring, the parent had one way to do it "right". I'd prefer a wired bus that is engineered the reverse of early USB. Devices can send info, but the top node that gets the info cannot initiate or send data... just send an ack that it got received. Even with this, there are still ways to hack it, so the ideal is no system at all.
Because it be connected to the Internet, doesn't mean it should. Take the Internet connected deadbolt. We don't need junk like that. Instead, the time it takes to engineer that should have been spent making a better locking mechanism/door/jamb system to help against actual threats like lock bumping and kick-ins.
[1]: I've heard "security has no ROI" many a time, coupled by "Infosys/Geek Squad can fix anything if we get hacked", when I ask the followup question about contingency plans.
Microsoft has two technologies in Windows Server 2012: Storage Spaces (which is LVM level), and ReFS. Both when used together can detect bit rot, but IIRC, only when the Storage Space volume is set to mirroring, nor parity.
This is similar with ZFS. RAID-Z will detect bit rot, but won't fix it. RAID-1, RAID-Z2, and RAID-Z3 will detect and fix bit rot on a scrub. One can also use copies or ditto blocks.
Linux, there isn't much either way. I have no clue if LVM2 + btrfs will do anything about bit rot, assuming it has the ability to repair it from a mirror or a RAID 6 volume. This seems to be one of those "ask four people, get five answers" type of items.
If I were setting up a file server or backend RAID, I'd probably will go with Linux and ZFS (from the zfsonlinux projects.) The / and/boot filesystems wouldn't be able to be placed on ZFS, but almost everything else can. With a RAID-Z2 pool, this will go far in detecting and handling bit rot.
I think it might have a niche utility, but to use a car example, this is like making a very top tier points/condensor/magneto system for a car's engine... while the world has moved on to common rail EFI.
I am glad it got released (I remember it being the dream of document presentation well before Mosaic appeared on the NeXT), but there are many other document utilities out there with similar function. PDF and HTML come to mind, perhaps nroff on a limited basis. However, the world has moved on. On the other hand, Xanadu deserves its place in history, just for the concept.
We sort of have that with OpenPGP encrypted files, and Web add-ons. However, it assumes one is going to load their private keys into the Web browser... and because the Web browser is the first thing that gets its face curb-stomped come a 0-day, this may not be a wise thing unless there is OS support for keeping the keys, decryption module, and decrypted text viewer/attachment manager well out of the browser's OS context.
The reason I suggest an old fashioned MUA is because they tend to not be as vulnerable to malformed E-mail messages when configured properly. The spammy E-mails either try to get someone to download a wrapped executable (.scr extensions are commonplace), or get the user to visit a bad site. The E-mail themselves tend to not by themselves be dangerous, assuming scripting is turned off by default.
ISIS is becoming a carrier standard for this. It uses NFC, a special SIM card with the ISIS application (so it can have its own PIN separate from the SIM's PIN/PIN2), and an Amex or Wells Fargo credit card.
Is ISIS a good thing? Possibly, but you have to open a new line of credit to use it, in most cases.
Of course, there is Google Wallet and PayPal as well, so there may be a standard war between those three companies.
I wouldn't say it would be the end of credit card fraud. It makes people more dependent on their phone, which means dire consequences if it is stolen, or if malware seizes control of the unit and is able to key-log the PIN.
Another issue is that some protocols are viewed negatively. Tor comes to mind, because it is anonymous and works well... but it becomes a source of abuse, and it is also associated with the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse. If one could get mainstream users not just using Tor, but setting up usable exit nodes, it might change the perception.
Sometimes, I wonder about an encryption protocol implementation like iMessage being broken up into multiple companies, all separate, perhaps in different countries:
1: The company that codes the client. 2: The company with the servers where messages reside. 3: The company that writes the protocol. 4: The company that officially signs the executables to be distributed, but vets the code base for unauthorized changes before doing so.
By splitting this up, it would take compromise of at least two of the above, and definitely the company with the servers.
I've used both PGP and GPG, but I have run into the spam filters. With S/MIME, I've run into people flipping out when they see the ribbon icon in a received E-mail on Outlook, to the point getting their company's legal department and a LEO involved because they thought a validated signature was malware.
What I'd like to see is a signing system that piggybacks onto GPG, or perhaps S/MIME that would allow for read receipts (provided the receiver chose to allow it to be sent)... but maybe allow for mail to be "un-sent", although the mechanism involved would have to be flawless, or else it would be a big security issue.
Maybe this is pure Ludditism, but the best security is gotten by having a MUA that is separate from the e-mail provider, and the MUA handles PGP/gpg or S/MIME keys.
There is something nice and convenient about Web based E-mail, but it is at a cost of end to end security.
It isn't as good as end to end, but with Exchange, one can do encrypted TLS connectors with other Exchange sites that one does a lot of E-mail or other messaging with. This will secure the E-mail as it goes from site "A" to site "B". However, if site "C" still uses unencrypted SMTP, then anything going there isn't really secured.
In theory, Google can be forced to push out an add-on that slurps up private keys and uploads them. However, no solution is 100%, and anything is better than nothing.
The best solution is to have a MUA, (not a Web browser... a dedicated MUA that isn't a general purpose renderer) handle all E-mail, with separate modules that don't autoupdate that handle PGP/gpg and other encryption. However, anything is better than nothing, and this will do a decent job at protecting against intrusion internally.
This is probably similar to how some call all digital audio players, "iPods", or any tablet an iPad. For example, someone looking at a tablet, and telling the clerk they wanted the "Samsung iPad".
Is buying an Android phone a "mistake"? To answer a question with a question, is buying a Ford F-350 over a Dodge 3500 a mistake?
Yesterday's WWDC had a lot of stuff being announced, I'd say one of the more useful announcements was the iCloud storage price drop and the fact that iCloud can be used directly as a drive similar to Dropbox. However, Google Drive has had this functionality for a while, and its price is about the same as Apple's offering.
As for Android being a "mistake", not really. I don't know any tasks that you can do on iOS that can't be done on Android unless it is due to Apple-specific stuff like iMessage. Vice-versa, the main thing Android can do over non-jailbroken iOS are fairly esoteric things like accessing a sshfs volume, something that isn't really an everyday thing for most people.
It really depends on the phone. The HTC phone I bought recently has ROMs available before it officially went on sale. In fact, some unofficial ROMs like CM can have support and updates for a long time after the phone has been discontinued. (I bought the HTC phone because it has plenty of disk space, and it had a MicroSD slot, and with a quick app, the SELinux profile allowed for older apps to work with the external card without issue.)
I wouldn't discount Android just yet. Instead, I'd just be careful what model I buy, and watch features/specs.
If a SD card doesn't matter, a Nexus or GPE (Google Play Experience) device almost certainly will have the ability to unlock the bootloader in the future, so that may be the way to go.
There are a lot of places here in the US, where even basic DSL or cellular service is fairly hard to come by, and if one goes with a conventional satellite provider, it becomes very expensive very fast.
This is something that I have high hopes for... done right, and assuming the uplink/downlink antennas are not too expensive, this would allow a baseline of Internet access in a whole region. Latency is "meh", but it is a lot better than what a lot of places have right now.
I tried my hand at sales once at one company... started telling prospective customers where the product is weak at and where they are going to have to throw man hours in order to get it working. Told them also where the advantage was for spending $BIGNUM for purchasing the product. Also told them the first three support calls they will be making when they start implementing.
Turns out, I gave them the only straight answer of any of the companies they were looking at... and they made the purchase... then found out that IT people didn't get commissions...
Even older setups, MIDI triggers and wiring keyboards and synths to fire off effects come to mind. Troubleshooting is key, and the one iron-clad skill you learn in IT is how to find, isolate, and maybe even solve a problem, especially things like intermittent ground loops.
Other companies in the computer industry, if you are a client, you can sign a NDA (blood optional, but likely asked), and they will hand you a roadmap for the next 3-5 years of where they plan to be with product launches.
Apple, there might be a few companies (like their upstream suppliers) who might get this privilege... but if one has a mid-range business and is trying to time budget issues with a refresh of MacBooks or new iPhones, it is impossible.
It is understandable that this type of stuff is good for the consumer circuit, but Apple should start looking at getting into the enterprise. Consumers are a fickle lot, and with Jobs gone, Cook has done a good job at keeping the legacy going, but Apple may end up in a bind in the next few years. Expand into too many markets, get spread thin. Stay in the same markets and get hammered by shareholders for not "growing".
A decent NAS isn't too expensive. Get a decent enclosure that has a number of 5.25" bays, power supply, a small SSD for the OS, trays for the 5.25" bays that allow hot plugging/unplugging of 2.5" drives, and your OS of choice, and you can have a good capacity with +2 redundancy for under a grand. (You want RAID1 or RAID-Z2 at a minimum these days because RAID-Z can detect bit rot, but can't fix it. RAID-Z2 and higher can not just find bit rot, but can fix it without the use of ditto blocks.)
Another product I've heard very good things about is something called un-RAID. You can add onto the RAID array dynamically, having the largest drive (if they are not all the same size) be dedicated to parity, another drive for write caches, and so on... so when you need more storage, tossing more drives in and hot-adding appears to be easy. Downside is that it is commercial, and I am leery of "magic voodoo" when it comes to RAID.
The income tax really doesn't hurt the top guys. They have their tax havens overseas.
A VAT would be useful, because you can't hide a Maybach like you can some bonds in an offshore account. However, sales taxes are regressive in general, and again, the burden of it would be on the shoulders of people buying basic stuff to survive.
A tax system is a debate into itself. You need a number of factors in it:
1: Some progressive-ness. People just getting by need a bit of help, so it can't just be taxing food, housing and other staples for survival. A percentage point or two on a luxury car might be better than taxing WIC goods.
2: Enforcability. You get to a certain wealth level in the US, you pay $0 in taxes. You don't want a "soak the rich" mentality, but there is always having people pay their fair share. If income taxes could be enforced, it would bring a better share of revenue.
3: Encouragement/discouragement. In some circumstances, it might be better to tax some good heavily rather than outright ban it. On the other hand, it might be better to have no taxes on certain goods in order to get people to go buy it. LED bulbs come to mind as something to encourage people to buy.
The Fair Tax sounds interesting, but it puts the tax burden on the people who can least afford it.
For RV-ing when I need LED bulbs to save the batteries, I end up ordering on eBay from Taiwan or the mainland for about a buck as well. Granted, it takes about 7-10 days to show up... but still. The light bulbs are a buck each with free shipping.
I wonder what I'm missing here because if I want to ship the same bulb to another state, it probably will cost far more than the bulb is worth.
I remember thinking there would be great future in Dallas Semiconductor "one wire" Java buttons, because they could be used to store RSA keys, and so on.
These days, the "one touch" Dallas Semiconductor iButtons seem to be very rare... although they would be nice to have as an alternative to a mechanical keyswitch in some situations.
It depends on use. A criminal could be well off with a small caliber firearm because the threat of the weapon is what he needs more than actual firepower. A legal owner is going to expect that what he has is going to last through thousands of rounds. A crook just needs it to fire a few times, and if it is used for firing, it will be at point-blank range.
I know this is anecdotal, but I'm the same way. A red LED isn't that big an issue, but blue or white? Something has to go completely over it for me to get any sleep, and even then, the secondary scatter is still notable.
Greens can be an issue, especially above a certain brightness.
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I'm surprised because Kingston so far has had an extremely good name, especially when it came to RAM. PNY wasn't up there, but at least from what I read, it was decent.
From /. articles and other reviews, I'm thinking if I go with a SSD, it will be Intel. Intel isn't perfect, but they seem to be tops when it comes to SSD reliability.
I believe in the KISS principle. Even though people say that a hacker with the 0-days to go after IoT devices won't go after individual users... I will agree there. Individually, they won't bother with people. However, their script that walks the Internet and seizes control of devices, is what would be done, with that info being sold to another party, just like credit card dumps. In fact, a list of vulnerable/cracked devices a person owns might even be in the same database tuple as their name, social security number, and other item sold on the black market.
There are some things I don't need. I can look at the date of items in my fridge and tell they are going to expire. I don't need to have a fancy infrastructure in place so that some company can sell me milk in the next round of banner ads. I can look near the commode and tell how many rolls of TP that I have, and don't need to upload that info somewhere. I don't need a toilet which checks sugar levels, but quietly uploads that to health insurance companies so they have an excuse to raise premiums. If I'm worried about sugar levels, I can always get a meter and a roll of test strips and do the job right.
We do not need an IoT. We are being sold this shit because "market expansion" balloons stock prices even though it may or may not make revenue.
IoT devices will be engineered to be as cheap to produce as possible. They will be coming out of the cheapest factory in China, and engineered to barely work. At best, they will barely pass UL standards, if they don't just come with a fake UL tag in the first place. It will be a given that there will be little thought to security [1], and the only way to fix them will be replacing them with devices that are even buggier and more expensive.
If we want monitoring, the parent had one way to do it "right". I'd prefer a wired bus that is engineered the reverse of early USB. Devices can send info, but the top node that gets the info cannot initiate or send data... just send an ack that it got received. Even with this, there are still ways to hack it, so the ideal is no system at all.
Because it be connected to the Internet, doesn't mean it should. Take the Internet connected deadbolt. We don't need junk like that. Instead, the time it takes to engineer that should have been spent making a better locking mechanism/door/jamb system to help against actual threats like lock bumping and kick-ins.
[1]: I've heard "security has no ROI" many a time, coupled by "Infosys/Geek Squad can fix anything if we get hacked", when I ask the followup question about contingency plans.
Microsoft has two technologies in Windows Server 2012: Storage Spaces (which is LVM level), and ReFS. Both when used together can detect bit rot, but IIRC, only when the Storage Space volume is set to mirroring, nor parity.
This is similar with ZFS. RAID-Z will detect bit rot, but won't fix it. RAID-1, RAID-Z2, and RAID-Z3 will detect and fix bit rot on a scrub. One can also use copies or ditto blocks.
Linux, there isn't much either way. I have no clue if LVM2 + btrfs will do anything about bit rot, assuming it has the ability to repair it from a mirror or a RAID 6 volume. This seems to be one of those "ask four people, get five answers" type of items.
If I were setting up a file server or backend RAID, I'd probably will go with Linux and ZFS (from the zfsonlinux projects.) The / and /boot filesystems wouldn't be able to be placed on ZFS, but almost everything else can. With a RAID-Z2 pool, this will go far in detecting and handling bit rot.
I think it might have a niche utility, but to use a car example, this is like making a very top tier points/condensor/magneto system for a car's engine... while the world has moved on to common rail EFI.
I am glad it got released (I remember it being the dream of document presentation well before Mosaic appeared on the NeXT), but there are many other document utilities out there with similar function. PDF and HTML come to mind, perhaps nroff on a limited basis. However, the world has moved on. On the other hand, Xanadu deserves its place in history, just for the concept.
We sort of have that with OpenPGP encrypted files, and Web add-ons. However, it assumes one is going to load their private keys into the Web browser... and because the Web browser is the first thing that gets its face curb-stomped come a 0-day, this may not be a wise thing unless there is OS support for keeping the keys, decryption module, and decrypted text viewer/attachment manager well out of the browser's OS context.
The reason I suggest an old fashioned MUA is because they tend to not be as vulnerable to malformed E-mail messages when configured properly. The spammy E-mails either try to get someone to download a wrapped executable (.scr extensions are commonplace), or get the user to visit a bad site. The E-mail themselves tend to not by themselves be dangerous, assuming scripting is turned off by default.
ISIS is becoming a carrier standard for this. It uses NFC, a special SIM card with the ISIS application (so it can have its own PIN separate from the SIM's PIN/PIN2), and an Amex or Wells Fargo credit card.
Is ISIS a good thing? Possibly, but you have to open a new line of credit to use it, in most cases.
Of course, there is Google Wallet and PayPal as well, so there may be a standard war between those three companies.
I wouldn't say it would be the end of credit card fraud. It makes people more dependent on their phone, which means dire consequences if it is stolen, or if malware seizes control of the unit and is able to key-log the PIN.
Another issue is that some protocols are viewed negatively. Tor comes to mind, because it is anonymous and works well... but it becomes a source of abuse, and it is also associated with the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse. If one could get mainstream users not just using Tor, but setting up usable exit nodes, it might change the perception.
Sometimes, I wonder about an encryption protocol implementation like iMessage being broken up into multiple companies, all separate, perhaps in different countries:
1: The company that codes the client.
2: The company with the servers where messages reside.
3: The company that writes the protocol.
4: The company that officially signs the executables to be distributed, but vets the code base for unauthorized changes before doing so.
By splitting this up, it would take compromise of at least two of the above, and definitely the company with the servers.
I've used both PGP and GPG, but I have run into the spam filters. With S/MIME, I've run into people flipping out when they see the ribbon icon in a received E-mail on Outlook, to the point getting their company's legal department and a LEO involved because they thought a validated signature was malware.
What I'd like to see is a signing system that piggybacks onto GPG, or perhaps S/MIME that would allow for read receipts (provided the receiver chose to allow it to be sent)... but maybe allow for mail to be "un-sent", although the mechanism involved would have to be flawless, or else it would be a big security issue.
Maybe this is pure Ludditism, but the best security is gotten by having a MUA that is separate from the e-mail provider, and the MUA handles PGP/gpg or S/MIME keys.
There is something nice and convenient about Web based E-mail, but it is at a cost of end to end security.
It isn't as good as end to end, but with Exchange, one can do encrypted TLS connectors with other Exchange sites that one does a lot of E-mail or other messaging with. This will secure the E-mail as it goes from site "A" to site "B". However, if site "C" still uses unencrypted SMTP, then anything going there isn't really secured.
I just wonder how long it will be until some microbe evolves that can chew on polymers, breaking them up into something digestible.
In theory, Google can be forced to push out an add-on that slurps up private keys and uploads them. However, no solution is 100%, and anything is better than nothing.
The best solution is to have a MUA, (not a Web browser... a dedicated MUA that isn't a general purpose renderer) handle all E-mail, with separate modules that don't autoupdate that handle PGP/gpg and other encryption. However, anything is better than nothing, and this will do a decent job at protecting against intrusion internally.
1: Compatible with OpenPGP (except for some reasonable caveats. Not bad.)
2: Some thought in building it, not just slinging a beta for download, wise.
3: Keys stored away from where the bad code can compromise a browser... smart.
So far, this seems to be something that can be useful for one who does use PGP or gpg often.
This is probably similar to how some call all digital audio players, "iPods", or any tablet an iPad. For example, someone looking at a tablet, and telling the clerk they wanted the "Samsung iPad".
Is buying an Android phone a "mistake"? To answer a question with a question, is buying a Ford F-350 over a Dodge 3500 a mistake?
Yesterday's WWDC had a lot of stuff being announced, I'd say one of the more useful announcements was the iCloud storage price drop and the fact that iCloud can be used directly as a drive similar to Dropbox. However, Google Drive has had this functionality for a while, and its price is about the same as Apple's offering.
As for Android being a "mistake", not really. I don't know any tasks that you can do on iOS that can't be done on Android unless it is due to Apple-specific stuff like iMessage. Vice-versa, the main thing Android can do over non-jailbroken iOS are fairly esoteric things like accessing a sshfs volume, something that isn't really an everyday thing for most people.
It really depends on the phone. The HTC phone I bought recently has ROMs available before it officially went on sale. In fact, some unofficial ROMs like CM can have support and updates for a long time after the phone has been discontinued. (I bought the HTC phone because it has plenty of disk space, and it had a MicroSD slot, and with a quick app, the SELinux profile allowed for older apps to work with the external card without issue.)
I wouldn't discount Android just yet. Instead, I'd just be careful what model I buy, and watch features/specs.
If a SD card doesn't matter, a Nexus or GPE (Google Play Experience) device almost certainly will have the ability to unlock the bootloader in the future, so that may be the way to go.
There are a lot of places here in the US, where even basic DSL or cellular service is fairly hard to come by, and if one goes with a conventional satellite provider, it becomes very expensive very fast.
This is something that I have high hopes for... done right, and assuming the uplink/downlink antennas are not too expensive, this would allow a baseline of Internet access in a whole region. Latency is "meh", but it is a lot better than what a lot of places have right now.
I tried my hand at sales once at one company... started telling prospective customers where the product is weak at and where they are going to have to throw man hours in order to get it working. Told them also where the advantage was for spending $BIGNUM for purchasing the product. Also told them the first three support calls they will be making when they start implementing.
Turns out, I gave them the only straight answer of any of the companies they were looking at... and they made the purchase... then found out that IT people didn't get commissions...
Even older setups, MIDI triggers and wiring keyboards and synths to fire off effects come to mind. Troubleshooting is key, and the one iron-clad skill you learn in IT is how to find, isolate, and maybe even solve a problem, especially things like intermittent ground loops.
Other companies in the computer industry, if you are a client, you can sign a NDA (blood optional, but likely asked), and they will hand you a roadmap for the next 3-5 years of where they plan to be with product launches.
Apple, there might be a few companies (like their upstream suppliers) who might get this privilege... but if one has a mid-range business and is trying to time budget issues with a refresh of MacBooks or new iPhones, it is impossible.
It is understandable that this type of stuff is good for the consumer circuit, but Apple should start looking at getting into the enterprise. Consumers are a fickle lot, and with Jobs gone, Cook has done a good job at keeping the legacy going, but Apple may end up in a bind in the next few years. Expand into too many markets, get spread thin. Stay in the same markets and get hammered by shareholders for not "growing".
A decent NAS isn't too expensive. Get a decent enclosure that has a number of 5.25" bays, power supply, a small SSD for the OS, trays for the 5.25" bays that allow hot plugging/unplugging of 2.5" drives, and your OS of choice, and you can have a good capacity with +2 redundancy for under a grand. (You want RAID1 or RAID-Z2 at a minimum these days because RAID-Z can detect bit rot, but can't fix it. RAID-Z2 and higher can not just find bit rot, but can fix it without the use of ditto blocks.)
Another product I've heard very good things about is something called un-RAID. You can add onto the RAID array dynamically, having the largest drive (if they are not all the same size) be dedicated to parity, another drive for write caches, and so on... so when you need more storage, tossing more drives in and hot-adding appears to be easy. Downside is that it is commercial, and I am leery of "magic voodoo" when it comes to RAID.
The income tax really doesn't hurt the top guys. They have their tax havens overseas.
A VAT would be useful, because you can't hide a Maybach like you can some bonds in an offshore account. However, sales taxes are regressive in general, and again, the burden of it would be on the shoulders of people buying basic stuff to survive.
A tax system is a debate into itself. You need a number of factors in it:
1: Some progressive-ness. People just getting by need a bit of help, so it can't just be taxing food, housing and other staples for survival. A percentage point or two on a luxury car might be better than taxing WIC goods.
2: Enforcability. You get to a certain wealth level in the US, you pay $0 in taxes. You don't want a "soak the rich" mentality, but there is always having people pay their fair share. If income taxes could be enforced, it would bring a better share of revenue.
3: Encouragement/discouragement. In some circumstances, it might be better to tax some good heavily rather than outright ban it. On the other hand, it might be better to have no taxes on certain goods in order to get people to go buy it. LED bulbs come to mind as something to encourage people to buy.
The Fair Tax sounds interesting, but it puts the tax burden on the people who can least afford it.
For RV-ing when I need LED bulbs to save the batteries, I end up ordering on eBay from Taiwan or the mainland for about a buck as well. Granted, it takes about 7-10 days to show up... but still. The light bulbs are a buck each with free shipping.
I wonder what I'm missing here because if I want to ship the same bulb to another state, it probably will cost far more than the bulb is worth.
I remember thinking there would be great future in Dallas Semiconductor "one wire" Java buttons, because they could be used to store RSA keys, and so on.
These days, the "one touch" Dallas Semiconductor iButtons seem to be very rare... although they would be nice to have as an alternative to a mechanical keyswitch in some situations.
It depends on use. A criminal could be well off with a small caliber firearm because the threat of the weapon is what he needs more than actual firepower. A legal owner is going to expect that what he has is going to last through thousands of rounds. A crook just needs it to fire a few times, and if it is used for firing, it will be at point-blank range.
I know this is anecdotal, but I'm the same way. A red LED isn't that big an issue, but blue or white? Something has to go completely over it for me to get any sleep, and even then, the secondary scatter is still notable.
Greens can be an issue, especially above a certain brightness.