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Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:Solution: Don't Trust Anyone (within reason) on Questioning the Dispute Over Key Escrow · · Score: 1

    Sorry to be pedantic, but in this case it is important.

    We have every reasonable expectation of privacy and trust we ever had. Government has destroyed every confidence that it can be trusted to honor those reasonable expectations. It is working hard to undermine it's own legitimacy.

  2. Re:No kidding. on Google Studies How Bad Interstitials Are On Mobile · · Score: 1

    It was on mine and many others. I don't even use facebook, but I have the app. Yours is not the only phone in the world.

  3. Re:awkward! on Samsung Finds, Fixes Bug In Linux Trim Code · · Score: 2

    The AC was sorta half right. It is not uncommon for hardware to break the standard so that it works with Windows. That sort of thing is becomm9ing less common but it's hardly unknown.

  4. Re:Symbiosis. on The Biohacking Movement and Open Source Insulin · · Score: 1

    If that can be made to work, it would be a 100% cure. Of course, you'd have to convince the immune system not to attack the replacement beta cells.

  5. Re:Symbiosis. on The Biohacking Movement and Open Source Insulin · · Score: 1

    I wondered that myself. There would be great value if the bacteria could be engineered to maintain a limited population so the host would get a baseline supply of insulin. They would probably still require injections to keep well regulated, but it would be less and with reduced consequences if they were unable to do that for a time.

    Perhaps it could even be enough to let a type I diabetic manage their blood sugar more like a type II sufferer.

  6. Re:Biohacking? on The Biohacking Movement and Open Source Insulin · · Score: 1

    One is modifying bacteria in a lab to produce a vital medication. The other is modifying plants growing out in the open to make them produce pesticides that they swear won't hurt us when we eat them.

  7. Re:Streetlights useful to remark road in bad weath on Britain Shuts Off 750,000 Streetlights With No Impact On Crime Or Crashes · · Score: 1

    It seems that for things like that, rather than bright streetlights, simple lighted markers should suffice.

  8. Re:So where is the rending of garments? on What Federal Employees Really Need To Worry About After the Chinese Hack · · Score: 1

    Actually, I meant in the other sense. The American public has a right to know that an agency of it's government is illegally spying on them. The public has no such overriding interest in the personal details of federal employees.

  9. Re:"Scientific concensus" on Genetically Modified Rice Makes More Food, Less Greenhouse Gas · · Score: 1

    It could, of course, be that they reviewed the benefits and risks and drew their own conclusions which sometimes match the consensus and sometimes don't.

  10. Re:So where is the rending of garments? on What Federal Employees Really Need To Worry About After the Chinese Hack · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And meanwhile, Snowden's release had a strong element of public interest to it. There is no public interest in OPM's screw up.

  11. Re:So where is the rending of garments? on What Federal Employees Really Need To Worry About After the Chinese Hack · · Score: 1

    True, but unlike all of the domestic spying going on, securing American networks and government systems from foreign attack is very much part of their charter. They blew it big time.

  12. Since we are discussing rules for the society where those links hold true, it hardly matters.

    If/when society changes radically enough, we can revisit.

    That will be quite a radical change though since as far back as written history goes, we find remarks about young adults being more rash and hot-headed than their elders and so in need of guidance.

  13. See the references here.

    If your claim was true, parents would instinctively tell their 5 year olds to go to bed when they feel like it and wouldn't worry about it if their 12 year old decided not to come home until morning.

    Instead, they recognize that the 5 year old is developmentally advanced enough to avoid immediate threats but is nowhere near ready to plan their future.

    Your knowledge is decades out of date.

  14. Re:So where is the rending of garments? on What Federal Employees Really Need To Worry About After the Chinese Hack · · Score: 1

    It's pervasive and powerful all right. It's just that it has the Competence of the Three Stooges and the level headedness of the Queen of Hearts.

  15. That's just BS.

    No it isn't. It is a fact of human development.

    That doesn't mean helicopter parenting is in order or that they can't manage at home by themselves for a while with generally increasing autonomy, but it does mean that expecting adult thinking about longer term life choices will be hit and miss at best. It makes no more sense to hold them forever responsible for their actions than it does to teach calculus in kindergarten.

    While pulling everything off the internet forever isn't really possible, we can certainly disallow use of old information from childhood when deciding on employment or credit at the very least.

  16. So where is the rending of garments? on What Federal Employees Really Need To Worry About After the Chinese Hack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Snowden hands over evidence that the NSA has been illegally spying on U.S. citizens and Allies (not to mention perjuring itself before Congress) to an American journalist resulting in a careful release of some data to prove the allegation and the feds call for his head on a platter, even risking an international incident or two to try to disappear him.

    The OPM fumbles and hands over 4.2 million very detailed dossiers on federal employees and 21 million others with security clearance to China and the feds say "no worries, we'll give you a year of credit monitoring.....eventually.".

  17. Re:The real benefit to this system on A Computer Umpires Its First Pro Baseball Game · · Score: 1

    Damned spell checker...

  18. Re:Why do you need this stuff on the internet at l on Honeywell Home Controllers Open To Any Hacker Who Can Find Them Online · · Score: 1

    I can imagine a few good reasons *IF* security is tight enough. For example, many people don't know in advance when they will return home. It might be nice to bump the heat up or the AC down when they're on their way. Some people get 'lock anxiety' when they are out (OMG, did I forget to lock the door). Now they can be sure.

    The key is to make sure it is secure. My preference would be a firewall rule on the router that allows me to ssh to a designated box that then allows me to control the home systems. Make it pubkey authentication only.

    As for the intranet, given how many people fail to secure their WiFi, I wouldn't count on that keeping it secure either. Better if there is decenty authentication on the device itself.

  19. Re: Wrong age on UK Campaign Wants 18-Year-Olds To Be Able To Delete Embarrassing Online Past · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a hell hole. I suspect we can do better if we adults can grow up and start acting like we claim we ought to.

  20. Re:The real benefit to this system on A Computer Umpires Its First Pro Baseball Game · · Score: 1

    Except the player's actual height is irrelevant. The strike zone is measured as the batsman stands awaiting the pitch (that is, hunched up somewhat with knees bent).

    The process did tighten up the strike zone sufficiently and it worked because it kept the umpire in charge with the machine simply providing feedback.

  21. Re:The three 5-star posts so far are sad on UK Campaign Wants 18-Year-Olds To Be Able To Delete Embarrassing Online Past · · Score: 1

    Mod this up!

    If I had to name the modern trends that need to go away it would be the cultivation of fear and the taste for eternal punishment for all.

  22. Re: Wrong age on UK Campaign Wants 18-Year-Olds To Be Able To Delete Embarrassing Online Past · · Score: 1

    And then THEY get punished while the bully plays poor me. These days, that punishment may include arrest and court appearances. That information will be 'out there' and will not likely mention the sore provocation over many months that lead to it.

  23. Re:Here's a thought... on UK Campaign Wants 18-Year-Olds To Be Able To Delete Embarrassing Online Past · · Score: 1

    You're asking kids to behave as adults. You might as well mock a baby for pissing itself for all the good it will do.

    Remember, there was a time long ago when you saw nothing at all embarrassing about sitting in your own filth.

  24. You support laws like Megan's law, which punishes sex offenders long after they have paid their debt to society (served their time). What's good for them is good for you. Get over it.

    Actually, I don't. I espectally don't support putting people who pissed on dumpsters in the middle of the night on those lists.

    It's people with your attitude who support those laws.

    Life used to have a total reset button. Move 100 miles and you become who you say you are. You had to start over with trust in your community, but if you learned from your previous mistake, you could come to be seen as an upstanding member of the community.

  25. It helps when your bank account holds enough to retire comfortably on right now. As for 8 year olds, no. They can parrot it back for you and sort of understand it, but until their frontal lobe takes over fully for their amygdala, they will make plenty of mistakes in that area.