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User: sjames

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Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:this is an ACLU fundraiser on ACLU Sues ICE For License Plate Reader Contracts, Records (sfgate.com) · · Score: 1

    So technically, I didn't commit murder, I just gave Lefty $10K to kill the victim. So I'm free to go, right?

    The police didn't search your house and crack your safe without a warrant, they just paid Larry, Darryl, and Darryl to do it.

    The U.S. has definitely not incarcerated you for 10 years without a trial, they just hired the cartel guys to do it for them.

  2. Re:this is an ACLU fundraiser on ACLU Sues ICE For License Plate Reader Contracts, Records (sfgate.com) · · Score: 1

    It's simple agency. If something is illegal for me to do, it is also illegal for me to hire someone to do the same thing for me.

  3. Re:this is an ACLU fundraiser on ACLU Sues ICE For License Plate Reader Contracts, Records (sfgate.com) · · Score: 1

    If you follow me around taking my picture, you are a stalker. There is a bit of gray area if I am a celebrity, but most people are not.

  4. Re:this is an ACLU fundraiser on ACLU Sues ICE For License Plate Reader Contracts, Records (sfgate.com) · · Score: 2

    Actually, once a concerted effort is made to put together a number of casual sightings of someone in public to track a person or persons, we do have laws in place. It's called stalking, and it's very illegal.

  5. Re: what how now on ACLU Sues ICE For License Plate Reader Contracts, Records (sfgate.com) · · Score: 1

    Actually, the limitations of government powers in the Bill of Rights apply to the U.S. government wherever it may operate and are not limited to citizens.

  6. Re:how many of the crimes weren't solved? on FBI Repeatedly Overstated Encryption Threat Figures To Congress, Public (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    Even there, you have to deduct some to cover cases where the phone turns out to be no help.

  7. You want to stop your spouse from voting in tomorrow's election? Dip his finger in ink while he's sleeping. Bingo, he VOTED!

    But you better know the right color of ink and that they're not going to mark the back of your hand this time. And be careful, divorce is expensive.

  8. I have no problem with registered voting per se. The problem is in what may be required to register. Driver's license? Why would you have that if you don't drive? Unexpired ID? Wait, why would an ID expire?

  9. Re:That's why you get a metal case on The Toughest (And Weakest) Phones Currently On the Market (tomsguide.com) · · Score: 1

    I don't understand why I would want to pay more for a phone to get one that's super thin, then spend more still to get a metal box to put it in rather than buying a more rugged phone in the first place.

    Oddly, rugged phones tend to be cheaper with an otherwise comparable feature set.

  10. Re:Affordable communications? on FCC is Hurting Consumers To Help Corporations, Mignon Clyburn Says On Exit (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2

    I suppose someone should tell you: NN has nothing to do with when you can or cannot upgrade your network.

  11. Re:With 14 drive partitions on 'TeenSafe' Phone Monitoring App Leaked Thousands of User Passwords (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Their defaults are designed to keep 99.999% of their users from pestering them for support so they don't have to charge more to be profitable. If you need managed servers, pay somebody more so they can get your instance set up for you.

  12. Re: Some context on People Hate Canada's New 'Amber Alert' System (www.cbc.ca) · · Score: 1

    What good does it do to convince people to disable the alerts by alerting when they are extremely unlikely to see anything anyway?

    How is it helpful to use the same alert for "A tornado will pass through your neighborhood in 5 minutes" and "in 6 hours a car may pass through a city half an hour away from you, or not. So if you happen to wake up and spot it from your bedroom window, give us a call.". Keep in mind, we already have signs over the interstates that can display that information where it is much more likely to be relevant and won't wake anyone up.

  13. Re:Summary is wrong... on New Toronto Declaration Calls On Algorithms To Respect Human Rights · · Score: 1

    That's not the statement. It's "It's against my ethics" vs. "It's against the ethics of a sizable group of experts on ethics and mine as well".

  14. Re:Summary is wrong... on New Toronto Declaration Calls On Algorithms To Respect Human Rights · · Score: 1

    Since I don't have to respect your opinion BY LAW, why did you bother giving it? Answer that and your question is also answered.

  15. Re:Summary is wrong... on New Toronto Declaration Calls On Algorithms To Respect Human Rights · · Score: 1

    It at least encourages them to either demand to know how the system is making it's decisions or quit using it.

  16. Re: Summary is wrong... on New Toronto Declaration Calls On Algorithms To Respect Human Rights · · Score: 1

    Have you carefully studied the questions to make sure race cannot be inferred to a high degree of accuracy based on the answers?

    For a more neutral example, males are more likely to commit criminal assault and tend to have larger feet. So do we let the algorithm add a few months to the sentence for shoplifting because the defendant wears a size 12?

    And since in for a penny already, people who go to prison are a bad credit risk, and since people who wear a size 12 spend more time in prison than people wearing a size 8, shall we automatically knock 20 points off of your credit score if you have larger feet?

    At what point does the pervasive algorithmic discrimination against people with large feet fulfill the premise that people with large feet are more likely to commit a crime?

  17. Re:Let me get this straight... on 'TeenSafe' Phone Monitoring App Leaked Thousands of User Passwords (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Then feel sympathy for the teens. They weren't likely given much choice here.

  18. Re:Defaults. Amazon chooses the defaults on 'TeenSafe' Phone Monitoring App Leaked Thousands of User Passwords (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Think of AWS as no contract automated server rental. They have no idea what you'll be doing with the server or how sensitive your data might be. Only you can make those determinations.

    As for Windows, what you say is true of Windows ANYWHERE. That's MS's default.

  19. Re:Some context on People Hate Canada's New 'Amber Alert' System (www.cbc.ca) · · Score: 1

    The last alert I got was for an abduction that had taken place TWO HOURS PRIOR, in a city that was an 8 hour drive away. A little after 9 P.M.

  20. Re:Some context on People Hate Canada's New 'Amber Alert' System (www.cbc.ca) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The last alert I got was for an abduction that had taken place two hours prior, in a city that was an 8 hour drive away. A little after 9 P.M.

    The odds that I might happen to see the described vehicle were zero. Since then, I have seen news reports of abductions where people in my general area might have potentially seen the vehicle, but I didn't receive an alert.

  21. In fact, Asimov covered some of that. For example, robots having to be modified so they would let humans take risks but then becoming capable of harming humans through lawyer logic.

  22. Re:crypto-coins? on IBM Warns Quantum Computing Will Break Encryption (zdnet.com) · · Score: 2

    Or, you generate the block you want which produces a partial hash. Now, you have a partial hash, a desired complete hash, and an empty field to make it happen.

    The blockchain doesn't care which possible solution goes in that field, just that one of them does.

  23. Re: Tesla smashed into starbucks on Days After A Fiery Crash, a Tesla's Battery Keeps Reigniting (mercurynews.com) · · Score: 1

    I haven't driven a Citroen, but I have been driving a car when the engine stalled suddenly, meaning power steering and brakes went out. I wouldn't say it handled well, but it handled well enough to come to a safe stop on the side of the road.

  24. Re:The real sophistication was in its hardware on Ask Slashdot: What's the Most Sophisticated Piece of Software Ever Written? (quora.com) · · Score: 2

    The issue was overscheduling. While the CPU crunched on the radar data, it missed the deadline for frobbing the watchdog, so it was restarted.

    But that ability to restart and do something useful in time was a combination of hardware and software design.

  25. Re:Is there energy to be had here? on First Measurement of Distribution of Pressure Inside a Proton (phys.org) · · Score: 2

    It's worse. The "bottle" is typically 95% full when we throw it away.