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User: ewanm89

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  1. Okay, so... on Congressmen Propose a New Military Branch: The 'US Space Corps' (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this basically proposing to rename Air Force Space Command into its own full branch?

  2. Re:quite peculiar on Forced Arbitration Isn't 'Forced' Because No One Has To Buy Service, Says AT&T (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, even in the US this is absolutely true, also unilateral contracts (one where all terms are set by a single party like an eula or a conditions of sale contract) are seen very different from a bilateral contracts and do not have anywhere near the same enforcement value.

    The courts frequently strike down such arbitration clauses as such clauses are direct unilateral violation of rights in a given jurisdiction.

    IANAL

  3. Yes, even in the US this is absolutely true, also unilateral contracts (one where all terms are set by a single party like an eula or a conditions of sale contract) are seen very different from a bilateral contracts and do not have anywhere near the same enforcement value.

    The courts frequently strike down such arbitration clauses as such clauses are direct unilateral violation of rights in a given jurisdiction.

  4. Re: I only have an A.S. degree in programming... on Java 9 Delayed Due To Modularity Controversy (infoworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Okay, on the Java a library is a set of classes... And an object is just an instantiation of a class. I would point out that when loading other JVM hosted languages these semantics no-longer necessarily hold true but the reflection can still be used.

    And no it does not work the same with modules, I know because it does fun things when the way the Clojure interpreter/compiler works uses that reflection and it is a core part of LISP based languages. The reflection checks a whole new set of access control related to these "modules" which gives important Clojure traces as unknown class, unknown method...

    Finally "an ordinary jar file" is not a first order thing, it is a packaging format (really just a ZIP file of .class files with a few metadata files added), the .class files are the first order way of load classes. However more than that, there are different levels of class loading governed by calling different class loaders in the JVM, Languages like Clojure inject into the JVM at a lot earlier point than an import statement in a running program does. This difference is important allowing clojure to override certain things and do the high performance interpretation/compilation without having the overhead of the rest of the libraries loaded that the users code uses.

  5. Re: I only have an A.S. degree in programming... on Java 9 Delayed Due To Modularity Controversy (infoworld.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    They envisioned a way where one could package the parts of the standard library with a application without including the whole thing. Of course, to do this they decided to totally change how the classpath and classloader works (how the VM finds and loads libraries) and then break reflection (being able to inspect library code from the code using that library).

  6. Yes Mr officer, I would love to help you but that document is just results of a random number generator in base64 that I was using to run a Monte Carlo simulation by hand.

  7. Re:They've definitely been laughing on Manchester Attack Could Lead To Internet Crackdown (independent.co.uk) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, this isn't just that, this is "we want to access all encrypted information". We must have broken encryption because "terrorism". Basically Theresa May has fascist tendencies she wants to enforce. Unfortunately the other political parties are such a mess at the moment that well... yeah, the whole thing is not good.

  8. Hehehe have these idots even looked at the constit on California Seeks To Tax Rocket Launches, Which Are Already Taxed (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    I am no lawyer but well, there are several sections that might cause some pain with this:

    Article 1, Section 8

    The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

    To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;

    So impost and excises must be uniform and by congress, hmm I wonder if a spaceship on an international trajectory applies to that, then there is the fact they can't do anything to legislate what happens at the launch site as that is federal property.

    Article 1, Section 9

    No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

    No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

    I'm sure the space ship is being exported from california... and that second one while originally written for boats applies to airports too, I guess we should extend that to spaceports.

    Article 1, Section 10

    No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Control of the Congress.

    so we are reiterating again, such a tax is only allowed to be imposed by congress.

  9. Urm right, and mess up the natural magnetic barrier that already shields us from solar winds?

  10. Re: North Korea's ultimate deterrent? on Broadband Expansion Could Trigger Dangerous Surge In Space Junk (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    North Korea is currently suborbital launch, also it is expensive. The key here is between companies like spacex and satellite miniturisation are getting launch costs down to the point where it would be feasible having lots of low earth orbit satellites rather than a dozen in geosynchronous orbit. LEO comments gives better latency but one needs a lot more as you need multiple in the sky at any time as they are constantly moving relative to the user. Before now such constellations have been the work of large governments or groups of governments in global positioning systems.

  11. Re: /. won't either on Should Burger King Be Prosecuted For Their Google Home-Triggering Ads? (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if anyone has figured just how malicious this actually is, it is insidiously so when we consider this deliberate repeat activations of what is a google search recorded against a users google account and feeds into the advertising interest algorithms for the advertising google's network serves. It is directly going to skew adverts to win win the advert buy auction on an interest score rather than a price per an advert.

  12. Re: A lot to chuckle about on Burger King Won't Take a Hint; Alters TV Ad To Evade Google's Block (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 2

    Next I expect google to blacklist the phrase after processing rather than just the advert sound if bk keep this up. They might also demote burger king search results, they really don't like others subverting their algorithms.

  13. Re: commonly used claim? on Should The FBI Have Arrested 'The Hacker Who Hacked No One'? (thedailybeast.com) · · Score: 1

    Do you arrest Glock cause someone was murdered with one of the pistols they made? What about Louisville Slugger cause someone was beaten with one of their baseball bats? How about Ford cause one of their cars was used to run someone down? Arresting the creator of a tool because of how it is being misused by others is highly questionable in any circumstance. I think most of the civilised world would agree that the responsibility for the use of such a tool in all the listed cases is on the person who used it to commit a crime, not one the person who created the tool, why should a software tool be considered any different?

  14. Re: Hey Apple... on The iPhone 7 Has Arbitrary Software Locks That Prevent Repair (vice.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are saying you could replace it with one that records the data from the sensor and then replays it later at the attackers whim. Making and using a jelly finger is a much better, easier, cheaper and more covert attack vector and so you are correct that the excuse is bull for the real reason of stopping people replacing commonly failing parts in their electronic devices without paying the corporate overlords their cut.

  15. Re:Um, No... on London Police Ink Shadowy Deal With Industry On Website Takedowns (eff.org) · · Score: 1

    No, they don't they have jurisdiction to one square mile of the walled City Of London, which is controlled by the City of London Corporation which almost has complete control over that square mile and has it's hands so deep in the economy that the Palace of Westminster has little choice but to bow to their wishes as long as they remain within some sort of reason. That said, this "policing" is far overstepping their jurisdiction of their quasi-police force of that 1 square mile.

  16. Re: They really don't understand. on Ivanka Trump To Take Coding Class With 5-Year-Old Daughter (hollywoodlife.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A programming language is a language, it has its own syntax, grammar and vocabulary, though linguistic studies into such languages are rare (there are a couple of linguists studying the field though).

    Yes I would agree basic foundation is very important, so why the fuck are we not teaching decision and discrete mathematics. It is the relevant mathematics field to study but is an optional in most curriculums pre university and so not taught by most schools.

  17. Re: patching without source code on Third-Party Vendor Issues Temporary Patch For Windows Vulnerability (bleepingcomputer.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    So you have never changed a value in some binary to skip a routine or something? It is relatively easy to change a conditional jump to an unconditional jump or noop if you know a little reverse engineering, crackers used to do such things all the time to bypass things like disk checks.

  18. Re: Biggest MITM on the net on Ask Slashdot: How Are You Responding To Cloudbleed? (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    More importantly, if your site is dynamic enough, cloudflare has to ask the original http servers if the content has changed anyway, and the real http servers crazy from the load anyway. Cloudflare is not a panacea for fixing DDoS attacks.

  19. Re:Why not blame the manufacturer? on Serious Computer Glitches Can Be Caused By Cosmic Rays (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Marginal extra cost, want to look up the difference in price between a Intel Core i7 extreme edition on an X99 board and the equivalent Intel Xeon where the difference between the processors is the ECC memory controller. There are a few low end mobile and embedded processors Intel do with ECC, but majority of their consumer range deliberately do not have it, it is a Xeon "feature" and the price tag that has.

  20. Re: "Of course it can," says government on Serious Computer Glitches Can Be Caused By Cosmic Rays (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Accept what are being talked about here is not low frequency radiation but extremely higher frequency radiation, wavelengths smaller than gaps between atoms that are only stopped on that direct hit which if it happens to just the right atom on that added circuit or whatever. Now the are extraordinarily rare events it the probability of any single ray is calculated but are being constantly but by these rays all day every day making the probability of causing an issue somewhere on the plant quite high. There are some solutions though, ECC ram for example means individual but flips can be fixed and is what is used in most server systems however support on consumer level gear is non existent. If that isn't enough run systems in triplicate on the separate machines then run a vote on the result only one machine is likely to have had a bit flip during that specific operation.

  21. We are already there:
    http://www.pcworld.com/article...
    http://arstechnica.com/gadgets...

    As the IBM article states they are working with Samsung and Global Foundries while the other article is about Intel that is 3 of the major chip fab companies stating they are moving to silicon-germanium hybrid crystal over pure silicon for exactly this reason. Also the fabs on a new process node take time to setup and they need to be ready before circuit design comes in to fab prototype batches so they are usually a couple of years ahead of what is commercially available on the market.

  22. Re:the real reason theyre arguing it. on Apple Will Fight 'Right To Repair' Legislation (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    Rarely is the issue a BGA package, usually it's a capacitor or soic package which can be replaced by hand even if it's not the easiest component to replace. A multimeter is still the most useful diagnostic tool especially when the most common component, a VRM or capacitor in the power supply has gone, knowing what the potential difference should be across various points of the board helps in identifying such issues. Memory test failure and similar software errors could literally be that the memory didn't get enough power cause part of the power supply has gone dead.

    Some vendors are really nasty and rub the id codes off or re-badge(own brand and id instead) on what is otherwise off the shelf components making it even more of a nightmare to tell what is wrong.

  23. Re: Slackware..... on LinuxQuestions Users Choose Their Favorite Distro: Slackware (zdnet.com) · · Score: 2

    Yeah, not to mention. Ubuntu users are more likely to be on ask Ubuntu. Mint also had it's own forums. This is personal choice not server administration so redhat and centos are out...
    The real question is how many prefer slackware for their personal desktop but use something else most of the time for some work reason or something.

  24. Re: You cannot sign with MD5, you hash with MD5. on Oracle to Block JAR Files Signed with MD5 Starting In April (bleepingcomputer.com) · · Score: 1

    Part of the RSA signature algorithm is signing a hash of the content you want to sign. They are changing that hashing algorithm.

    The funny thing is sha-1 is nolonger fit for this purpose and so Mozilla is requiring sha-2 in all HTTPS certificates from next week (after a major push by all the browser creators for CAs to use sha-256 for the last couple of years), so yeah, Oracle and Java is way behind the times and that is before we get to those that won't update.

  25. Audio data, or just a log of the voice recognition output? Those are 2 very different things.