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User: brentonboy

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  1. Supplying batteries for the 70mpg Fit Hybrid? on Toyota and Tesla May Work Together Again · · Score: 1

    Seeing as Honda just scrapped their Fit EV and the Insight, and the popularity of the Fit Hybrid in Japan, they might be scaling up to release a Hybrid Fit in the US. Things would fly off the shelves.

  2. Privacy Concerns? on DoT Proposes Mandating Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communications · · Score: 2

    > transmission of a vehicle's location, which comes with privacy concerns.

    We already had this debate when they mandated installing lights on vehicles, which also transmits the location of a vehicle and raised privacy concerns. In the end, the ability to not crash into invisible cars beat out the privacy concerns, IIRC.

  3. Sharing with other people is not the problem on 51% of Computer Users Share Passwords · · Score: 1

    People are good at evaluating the risks of sharing personal info with other people.

    The real problem is people sharing the same password between multiple sites. People are really bad at evaluating the risks of any given website being hacked and thus making all other sites that use that password hacked as well.

    The best thing we can do for security is encourage to write their site-unique passwords on sticky notes and post them clearly and legibly on their monitors. We'd go from millions of people being compromised every day by malicious hackers with a means of really messing you up, to one or two being hacked a day by someone's brother wanting to pull a prank.

    Once people make 10 unique passwords, they'll switch to a password manager. But even if they don't, you're safer printing your username and password on a t-shirt than you are re-using the same password on both google.com and adobe.com.

  4. This will be really cool to watch on SpaceX Testing Landing Legs On Next Falcon9 Rocket · · Score: 1

    Given the attention to video that SpaceX has given to their other activities, there's a good chance we'll get to see a video of this thing splashing down, depending on how precisely they can land it.

  5. Re:The govenment should just double spending. on Shutdown Cost the US Economy $24 Billion · · Score: 2

    In other words, when it says it "cost the economy $24 Billion," what it really means is that the US government spent $24 billion less than it would have otherwise.

    If that really was the problem, it could be fixed with a bill to buy $24 billion worth of paperclips.

    Am I the only one who thinks we're approaching this backwards?

  6. Wow! Almost as good as the XKCD article! on Never Underestimate the Bandwidth of a Suburban Filled With MicroSD Cards · · Score: 1
  7. Re:The plaintext passwords isn't the issue on Chrome's Insane Password Security Strategy · · Score: 1

    Why not just use KeePass or LastPass? Occam's Razor suggests it. In other words, why reinvent a wheel that has already been invented?

    I do. It's a huge pain. It would be "simpler" to have it built-in to my browser. But there must be a reason Google hasn't done it. (Other than "LastPass already exists".)

  8. The plaintext passwords isn't the issue on Chrome's Insane Password Security Strategy · · Score: 2

    Sure, it's shocking for someone who thought their passwords were safe in Chrome to realize that they're visible with four clicks. But the real issue is that Chrome passwords aren't really stored safely. If you get a virus on your system, it has full access to the passwords.

    Honest question: why doesn't Chrome implement something similar to KeePass or LastPass? Is there some technical reason? Is it astoundingly difficult? Does it not actually provide additional security against malware?

  9. Re:Low-heat electricity generation on Manipulating Heat Like Light · · Score: 1, Funny

    No, because it would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

    Does the 2nd law of thermodynamics not apply to a steam generator?

  10. Low-heat electricity generation on Manipulating Heat Like Light · · Score: 2

    I wonder if you could use this to concentrate low levels of heat and generate electricity from it. Not only would you be able to get energy out of (almost) nothing, (albeit, probably not much), but you could cool an area without producing a lot of waste heat.

  11. Re:Has nothing to do with evolution on Scientists Breed Big-Brained Guppies To Demonstrate Evolution's Trade-Offs · · Score: 1

    I think there's a difference between breeding and evolution. Breeding plays with existing traits and amplifies/changes them. Evolution actually creates something new. You can't "breed" a dog to have wings or gills or anything that the ancestor wolves didn't have. But you can play with size and hair length and things like that.

  12. What did that one computer spit out it's CD tray? on Boeing's CHAMP Missile Uses Radio Waves To Remotely Disable PCs · · Score: 1

    In the video when the microwaves hit, one of the computers ejects it's CD tray and something falls out. What was it? What could cause that to happen? Did something trigger the eject functionality, or was it caused by overheating pieces inside somehow?

  13. Re:Standard practice? on LinkedIn Password Leak: Salt Their Hide · · Score: 1

    I never give security questions the kind of thing they ask for. If they want my mother's maiden name, they might get "Cheverolet Caprice" (a car I have never owned), or the name of the neighbors's dog that I hate. I really doubt that they are going to check to see if I gave a valid name.

    Actually, I do this too. But I'm betting a lot of LinkedIn users don't.

  14. Re:Standard practice? on LinkedIn Password Leak: Salt Their Hide · · Score: 1

    This is LinkedIn, not your bank, not the government, nothing important.

    Except my bank has security questions that ask would-be infiltrators for personal information about me--the sort of personal information that can be found on LinkedIn, or that contacts on LinkedIn are likely to know.

  15. Re:Regret is a standard term in economics on Google Teaches Computers "Regret" · · Score: 1

    The article is comparing the technical regret to the common _use_ of the _word_ "regret," not the actual thing going on in our brains. I think there's a big difference in how most people use the word "regret" and what the technical word means.

  16. Re:Fear mongering? on Five Times the US Almost Nuked Itself · · Score: 1

    likely.

  17. Re:Fear mongering? on Five Times the US Almost Nuked Itself · · Score: 1

    The destruction would have been far less than that of Nagasaki or Hiroshima, since it would have detonated on the ground, instead of high in the air over the cities in Japan.

  18. My child almost shot himself on Five Times the US Almost Nuked Itself · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The only reason he didn't die is that there weren't any bullets around.

  19. Re:No, not Really? on GoogleSharing, Now With No Trust Required · · Score: 1

    Equivocate much?

  20. This could be marginally useful on GMail Introduces Priority Inbox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But what would be really useful is a snooze button for emails that would archive them for a few days (or whatever time you specify for that email) and then have it pop up in your inbox as if new after that.

  21. Re:The oil pressure's not that immense. on Cloth Successfully Separates Oil From Gulf Water · · Score: 1

    Why does it need to be this cloth? How about dumping 500 tons of cement on top of it?

  22. Re:Great for filtering, but - on Cloth Successfully Separates Oil From Gulf Water · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Mammals and birds have a better chance, and it seems like a skimmer like this gets them into the boat and gives rescuers a chance to wash them. They're probably better off in the boat than out of it.

    I'm not entirely sure - for two reasons:

    1) Nets are huge. If you get dragged into one, even one that floats on top, and more and more oil is dumped onto you, I think you're going to die unless you're the last thing to get dragged in
    2) I'm rather curious about the survival rate of birds, mammals, turtles etc., after they have been cleaned. It might look really nice, that you start with an oil covered pelican and end up with a shiny white and clean pelican, but if it dies a week after you set it free, because it's swallowed too much oil, infections or whatever, that doesn't bode well for the creature. Might be more humane to kill it instead of cleaning it off.

    Yeah, once the oil is on the birds, they'll likely die.

  23. Re:Sensitivity is not Resolution on Quantum Film Might Replace CMOS Sensors · · Score: 1

    Of course, if money is no object, more of everything will certainly improve things.

    Nope. Increasing resolution without first increasing light gathering ability will make the image worse. In fact, most digital cameras would produce better pictures if they decreased the resolution. Manufacturers put a higher pixel density than is useful because megapixels sell: the salesman and your mom, and even you see two cameras, one with 6mp, and one with 12mp, and you assume the 12mp camera is better. If they're similar in other respects, the one with a smaller pixel density (the 6mp one) is guaranteed to be better.

  24. Re:Why redirect them? on Is Internet Explorer 6/7 Support Required Now? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Agreed. This is why browser sniffing is bad. Just design it to be standards compliant, and let the browsers that can't follow the standards fail, hopefully gracefully. Blocking IE6 users completely is just pointless.

  25. Re:WooHoo! I'm safe! on Studies Find Harm From Cellular and Wi-Fi Signals · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He was doubting that a hardcore Slashdot reader has any female acquaintances, not that the AC was you.