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User: darkmeridian

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Comments · 2,312

  1. Re:First strike? on Iran's Military Claims To Have Downed US Surveillance Drone · · Score: 1

    This is also why US drones do not carry top of the line stealth or avionics technology, and why special forces teams are sent to recover downed drones in hostile territories, anyway. IIRC, there was a US aircraft that was downed and recovered by Russia. The Russian PM showed a piece to the US ambassador to taunt them about it. The Skunk Works guys were like, um, that's like a generation or two ago, and they're still learning from it? LOL!

  2. Cloud on Apple, Android Devices Swamp NYC Schools' ActiveSync Server · · Score: 1

    Switch to the Google Apps GovCloud or Microsoft Live 365. Oh, it isn't secure!!! Do you think the current admins have Exchange set up securely? You also get spam blocking and Postini with Google.

  3. Re:ASUS RT-16N / DD-WRT on Ask Slashdot: Best Flash-Friendly Router To Replace Aging WRT54GS? · · Score: 1

    It is also compatible with Tomato/TomatoUSB. The Asus RT-N16 is a monster with 128 MB RAM and 32 MB flash. That's overkill for most people, but hardcore dorks need that extra RAM and flash for their Optware packages. But OpenVPN works awesomely with TomatoUSB and the Asus RT-N16. If you don't need dozens of concurrent connections, it will probably do the trick for most small businesses.

  4. So rooted devices with custom ROMs don't have this on Carrier IQ Software May Be in iOS, Too · · Score: 2

    I am just going to guess that Android devices that were rooted and run custom ROMs don't have Carrier IQ installed. If that is the case, everyone should bitch and whine about the right to have root access on their devices, and the right to add whatever freaking ROM they want. If the carriers are keylogging their devices, we should be able to disable that feature. If they don't let us do that, we should be able to wipe off their spyware.

  5. Re:It'd better happen quick then on Is the Time Finally Right For Hybrid Hard Drives? · · Score: 1

    Hybrid drives are designed for laptops. Most laptops don't have space for two drives. Thus, the hybrid drive will let media obsessed folk to carry around 750 GB of stuff but give them a speed boost when necessary.

  6. Re:Nonsense on Physicist Uses Laser Light As Fast, True-Random Number Generator · · Score: 1

    No, the author of the article means to say "the new method can produce truly random numbers much more rapidly than current techniques."

  7. Re:I wish this was the case in the UK on Full Disk Encryption Hard For Law Enforcement To Crack · · Score: 1

    Yep. The Fifth Amendment protects against self-incrimination, but doesn't protect against the seizure of documents. In one memorable case, the defendant in a crime was asked to submit to photos of his full body neo Nazi tattoos to show that the murder was based on racial animus. He objected on the basis of the Fifth Amendment, but the court said no way.

  8. You Can't Take Credit For Avoiding A Disaster on Why Do Companies Backup So Infrequently? · · Score: 2

    Pretend a guy prevents the 9/11 attacks by requiring all airliners to have a bulletproof, locked cockpit door. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent, and prices go up. Everyone complains about government regulation. The attacks never happen. The instinct was that we just wasted a bunch of money. We spent hundreds of millions on H1N1 vaccine for an outbreak that never happened. But if it did, the vaccine would have saved many lives and prevented great financial loss. But it never happens, so it's seen as lost money.

    You push for backups, and you spend tens of thousands on it for years. There is a disaster eventually that you recover from quickly, but perhaps you aren't around to take credit for it. Or you restore and everyone thinks that it was supposed to because we spent so much on it. No one will think, "Well, we just saved millions of dollars of downtime because of the backup." The thinking is just, "Oh, well it was supposed to. We spent so much on it."

    This kind of myopia is commonplace in the world. We can invest money to treat everyone for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol with really cheap drugs. We can vaccinate everyone from childhood diseases. "Oh, but vaccines cause autism." Yes, but your child isn't paralyzed from polio. The avoided disaster is never quantified; only the cost spent shows up on your calculations.

  9. Re:2 people agreeing is news? on Technical Glitch Lets Reporters Eavesdrop On Obama, Sarkozy · · Score: 1

    Many nations were borne of terrorism. The US fought the British using "militia" tactics--aka hit and run tactics. Israel got statehood through killing Brits until they left. Why suddenly do these guys need to be peaceful in their quest for statehood?

  10. Re:Markets for Markets on Bill Gates Advocates Tax On Financial Transactions · · Score: 1

    Dude, it's not even an issue of regulatory capture as much as it is a case of the capitalists plain out-thinking all the regulators. Sure, the foxes guard the hen house. But anyone who can intelligently regulate derivatives and HFT are all making millions at the funds ripping everyone off with their superior knowledge. The investment banks pulled the pants off of the ratings agencies like Moodys and S&P by just reverse engineering the system. I doubt anyone in the SEC can understand the issues involved, much less do anything to untangle them.

  11. Re:A first on Bill Gates Advocates Tax On Financial Transactions · · Score: 1

    Gates has done a lot of stuff I have agreed with. His foundation has done more than enough to compensate for his sins as a hardcore capitalist. Who else but a dork would spend billions of his own money to bring attention to issues like malaria and typhoid in developing nations instead of more popular diseases like AIDS/HIV, and cancer? The man has saved thousands of lives. I also have doubts that Apple/IBM would have really popularized PCs to the extent that the Wintel monopoly did.

  12. Re:Why? on The CIA's Social Mining Department · · Score: 2

    This isn't used for figuring out his politics. Twitter and all this other social media BS is used for arranging protests against various foreign governments, and also to advocate terrorism. The guy we whacked in Yemen was calling for jihad based in part on a series of Youtube videos. Keeping apprised of these developments can be very useful, especially if they're figuring out where these various posts are coming from. If there's a movement arising in Syria, for instance, the US and NATO can step in to provide the rebels aid.

    Or maybe they're just using this to run for re-election. I really don't know.

  13. Re:You think the housing collapse was bad on US Student Loans Exceed $1 Trillion · · Score: 1

    The student loan program exploded after the federal government made federal student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy in 1998 and after ALL student loans were afforded such treatment in 2005. Student loans are also NOT regulated by the Truth In Lending Act, which means a grown up buying a house has more protections and required disclosures than a 17 year old making a life decision.

    Making student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy seven years after graduation (like it used to be) will cut off this explosion.

  14. Re:Lack of upward mobility on What Happens When the Average Lifespan is 150 Years? · · Score: 1

    There were riots already in Europe earlier this year because young people were pissed that old folk were not retiring and freeing up their jobs. The huge pensions in those countries serve to get the old people into retirement so the young can have their careers. With this economic downturn, the young have no jobs, thus they were rioting.

  15. Re:Loopholes on IRS Auditing Google · · Score: 1

    Congressmen don't make enough money to use these tax loopholes. Nope, they want to protect these loopholes because that leaves more money for the huge corporations to donate to their campaigns. Sidenote: It's annoying that people can set up a PAC, collect tons of money, then not run for office a la Sarah Palin.

  16. Re:uhh... on Sprint Details Shift To LTE · · Score: 1, Informative

    Taxpayers don't buy cellphones for blacks, you moron. And don't forget that up until fifty year ago, we were siccing dogs on protesters fighting for civil rights. Seventy years ago, we were just stringing up blacks from trees. And don't forget that today, we have morons like you.

  17. NAS With RAID Mirror on Ask Slashdot: Best Long-Term Video/Picture Storage? · · Score: 1

    I use a Synology NAS with two 2 GB hard drives in a mirror RAID. I load all of the pictures onto Google Web Albums at native resolution, which makes it much easier to share with friends. I'm not sure about the videos. It's just not feasible to backup a terabyte of information on the web.

    Personally, I use two Synology NAS at two different sites. They are configured to mirror each other using RSYNC. The web based GUI that Synology provides is very advanced and is pretty awesome. I know it's pretty costly but it probably beats uploading all that stuff online and then downloading it again when necessary. It also supports transparent AES encryption.

  18. Re:What other products on Healthcare Law Appealed To Supreme Court · · Score: 2

    HAHAHAHAHA. So the answer is "No, don't let them die; let them pray that someone takes pity on them. And I based this on the anecdotal evidence offered by a man who thinks the US government may be trying to fence us in." What if no one takes pity on them. "Well, then they die."

  19. Nitrogen Asphyxiation on Designer Creates "Euthanasia Roller Coaster" · · Score: 1

    Nitrogen asphyxiation is probably the best way to go. The body doesn't realize when it's running out of oxygen. It only senses a high level of carbon dioxide. Therefore, inhaling only nitrogen will result in death but there won't be any gasping or discomfort because the body thinks that everything is just groovy.

  20. Re:So what does this actually do? on Google Wallet Launches With $10 Credit · · Score: 1

    The Google Wallet technology sounds more secure than the current magnetic strip on the back of a plastic card solution. But to address your point, putting the information on my phone makes it more accessible. I don't carry a phonebook anymore because it's on my phone. I can search the information much faster. For a credit card solution, having it on my phone can give me information about my expenditures much faster than using an online banking app.

  21. Re:What an unfortunate name... on Netflix Creates Qwikster For DVD Only Business · · Score: 1

    The CEO is completely out of it. On the official Netflix Facebook thread on this announcement, Reed seems shocked to realize that users will now have to search two websites for the same movie. They first have to check Netflix to see if it's available on streaming, and if it's not, then go on over the Qwikster to get it on DVD. And there are no contingencies for this. How the hell do you not realize that before you go through with the plan? Did this guy find his MBA in a Crackerjack box?

  22. Re:I don't get "First to File" on Obama To Sign 'America Invents Act of 2011' Today · · Score: 1

    The USPTO has the power to request a working model of any item sought to be patented, but usually does not enforce it. This is to encourage small inventors who may have great ideas without the ability to reduce it to practice to get a patent to shop around to big companies. The exception, of course, is that the USPTO has a standing requirement that any perpetual motion device has to be reduced to practice first before it can be patented.

  23. Re:I'd be excited about this... on The Google+ API Is Released · · Score: 1

    Don't throw a rotten tomato at me, but Office 365 is pretty good, especially its SharePoint feature.

  24. Re:This can be handled on Why Aren't There More Civilians In Military Video Games? · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, as you might know from your experience, it's possible to act in accordance with the ROE and the laws of war and still kill civilians. That's not a message anybody wants to send, even those who oppose using games to "recruit" soldiers. I mean, who wants to teach everyone that civilians dying is an inevitable consequence of war?

  25. Synology NAS on Ask Slashdot: Network Backup Solution Out of the Box? · · Score: 1

    The Synology family of NAS devices are compact, well built, perform transparently AES encryption, and feature a great web-based GUI. If you get two Synologies, you can set them to sync to each other other the Internet with encryption. It uses the RSYNC protocol so it doesn't dump useless information over your network.

    I highly recommend them.