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User: michelcolman

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Comments · 2,782

  1. Re:Your post doesn't conform to their prejudice on Man Arrested After Charging iPhone On London Overground Train · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, and there was a recent incident where a cleaner was arrested for plugging his vacuum cleaner into one of those sockets.

  2. Re:On behalf of the rest of the world on Study Details What Happens When Galaxies Collide · · Score: 2

    OK, so it's just over five kilofeet then? Why don't they just say that?

  3. Re:spectrum on Study Details What Happens When Galaxies Collide · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, that galaxy is indeed blueshifted. Who told you that "all the stars" are redshifted? When you look at the night sky, you'll see about the same number of blueshifted as redshifted stars, since the vast majority of them are in our own galaxy and we're all just revolving around the center. And the galaxies in our immediate vicinity are kind of clumping together, not expanding. When you look at objects outside our local cluster of galaxies, yes, those do all appear redshifted. The further they are, the more redshifted they appear. And that indeeds indicates that the universe is expanding. But in our local neighbourhood, there's plenty of blueshifted stuff.

  4. Re:Almost there... on Study Details What Happens When Galaxies Collide · · Score: 2

    But once they "collide" (mingle), how can you still say that one galaxy is producing more stars than the other? I mean, doesn't it just become one big mess?

  5. Re:Good on Apple Drops Recovery Key From Two-Factor Authentication In New OS Versions · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Exactly, if you can reset your account password by "talking to a human", all the Fed has to do is talk to that same human.

    This is just because they probably had too many Apple users call them with "I lost my password, can you reset it? Recovery key? What's that?".

    Since there are probably ten times as many of those, compared to the number of people who actually care about security, it makes sense for them to dumb down the system. Keeps the majority of their users happy. And the Fed, to boot.

  6. Re:"I've lost my password" on Apple Drops Recovery Key From Two-Factor Authentication In New OS Versions · · Score: 2

    Hey, and I even know his moth... I mean... my mother's maiden name!

  7. Re:Bad sportmanship, or lawyers? on Siemens Sends Do-Not-Fly Order For Pipistrel's All-Electric Channel Crossing · · Score: 2

    How can someone prohibit someone from using one of their products in a particular, non-commercial way (a private test flight)? If I wanted to cross the channel with a dozen kitchen blenders and a really long extension cord, surely that's my decision? Siemens can say that the motor is not designed to be flown over water, and then, if a crash occurs, they can say "see, we told you it wasn't fit for that purpose, we take no responsibility". But preventing the flight from taking place? What allows them to do that?

  8. Re:Profit over safety on How the Next US Nuclear Accident Might Happen · · Score: 1

    what's the going insurance rate on giving cancer to people for decades and rendering large swaths of land unlivable for generations?

    I thought we were talking about nuclear power, why did you switch the subject to coal?

  9. That's not what the blockchain is for on MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The blockchain is already close to 40 GB in size, and now people want to store all sorts of other data (or metadata) in it. I can see this getting out of hand rather quickly.

    Miners won't be able to store the entire chain anymore, so only a few archival nodes will still have it. Just how secure and accessible will your metadata be then?

  10. Re:How is this illegal? on Apple Loses Ebook Price Fixing Appeal, Must Pay $450 Million · · Score: 1

    They did not force any competitors to raise their prices. Anybody was free to offer their book for a lower price, as long as they offered the same low price on the iBookStore.

  11. Re:Attractive compared to what? on Greek Financial Crisis Is an Opportunity For Bitcoin · · Score: 1

    It sure will be attractive compared to the new drachma.

  12. Re:You think Greeks want MORE electronic money? on Greek Financial Crisis Is an Opportunity For Bitcoin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, you can. It's called derivatives. Sell silver you don't have, buy gold that nobody has, eat your heart out. They can send the price pretty much anywhere they like.

  13. Re:Well... on Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero? · · Score: 1

    Neither do I, as long as they remain consistent and let 0 times 0 generate a random number.

  14. I don't mind as long as they remain consistent and define multiplication of 0 times 0 to be a random number.

  15. Re:Google-fu on Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Search Engines Left That Don't Try To Think For Me? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The plus doesn't work very well anymore, half the result pages simply don't contain the word. They seem to use this as an indication that that word is slightly more important but not actually required. Which can be quite infuriating when you are searching for a specific site you know contains that word.

  16. Re:quotation marks on Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Search Engines Left That Don't Try To Think For Me? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, for example, if you get something like

    Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[UINavigationController setList:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x6a33840'

    You can search for "Terminating app due to uncaught exception" NSInvalidArgumentException "unrecognized selector sent to instance"

    (In this case, the search actually does appear to work correctly)

    Usually, just copying and pasting some static part of the error message is quite helpful since others will have pasted the exact same words in some help forum.

  17. Re:quotation marks on Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Search Engines Left That Don't Try To Think For Me? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That usually does improve things, but not always. I often still get results as if I hadn't used any quotes at all, even though exact matches do exist and are displayed further down. And even a "+" in front of a word often gives sites that don't contain the word at all. Tip for Google, if someone writes "+" in front of a word, that really really really means that they really really want that word to actually appear on the page. Really. I'd rather get no results at all than a bunch of sites that don't contain the word.

  18. Re: Of course not. on Russian Official Calls For "International Investigation" of the Apollo Program · · Score: 1

    Nah, they just rolled out a big flat poster on the supposed lander site. Can't tell the difference from orbit.

  19. Re:Of course not. on Russian Official Calls For "International Investigation" of the Apollo Program · · Score: 1

    In this case other countries with no reason to lie for the US have observed the landing sites too. Both China and Russia have photographed them from orbit.

    No, they were just trying to fake their flights around the moon. "See, we really sent a probe around the moon, here's the proof, we've photographed the Apollo landing site!". In reality they just photoshopped a lander and craters on some sandpaper.

  20. Re:and 1 ....2......3.... Begin on Russian Official Calls For "International Investigation" of the Apollo Program · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone knows the moon landings were filmed on a soundstage on Mars!

    Yes, they first tried to do it in the Nevada desert, but they couldn't get the sound right.

  21. Re:That's Apple on Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X · · Score: 0

    O, yeah, when a flaw is found in iOS, you can just switch to Android and buy all the same apps you had on iOS. And then when another flaw is found in Android a couple of weeks later, you switch right back to iOS again. This time it's even easier because you only have to rebuy the apps you bought since the last switch. And if both platforms have open holes at the same time, well, just use an oldfashioned dumb phone for a while. Oh, you might even try a Microsoft phone (do they still make those?) for a while. See, plenty of options!

    Same for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Just buy multiple versions of all the apps you use in the office and you're all set. Or maybe try Haiku, I hear it has zero exploits in the wild.

  22. Re:No Keychain on Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Take a look in your KeyChain to see what else it stores that you may not even know about. Logins for websites, for example.

  23. Re:Back Doors Are Like Anal Sex on US Lawmakers Demand Federal Encryption Requirements After OPM Hack · · Score: 1

    They will get backdoored as well, since most politicians keep using normal civilian tools (hotmail, iPhones, USB sticks, etc.) no matter what ultra-secure tools you offer them.

  24. Re:Reality Clause on Philae's Lost Seven Months Were Completely Unnecessary · · Score: 1

    No, the article says that 1 kg would have been enough to completely power the entire mission, and only 2 grams would have been needed for a combination of Plutonium heating and solar power. That last option would have been enough (according to the article).

  25. Re:Reality Clause on Philae's Lost Seven Months Were Completely Unnecessary · · Score: 1

    Oh, yeah, 2 grams of plutonium will totally cause that kind of destruction.