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User: um...+Lucas

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  1. Re: Lesson from this story...don't be a glass hole on AMC Theaters Allegedly Calls FBI to Interrogate a Google Glass Wearer · · Score: 1

    I'm having trouble coming up with too much sympathy here, except being detained for 5 hours is overkill.

    Agree or not, we all know that it's illegal to record movies in the theater. We can all bring out cell phones and digital cameras with us because they make so much light when they're in use that it's apparent if someone is using one to record a film, not so with google glass. And since it's such a new technology, there are going to be a ton of people who don't understand it.

    There are many other places where filming is forbidden, and some places where even bringing a camera capable device is forbidden too, so the guy should have some common sense and bring a pair of prescription glasses for yhose eventualities.

    Anyone with enough money to get a glass surely has enough funds for a pair of ordinary prescription glasses.

  2. Re: We can learn a lot from NK about ski park desi on US Geneticist Discusses North Korea Trip With Dennis Rodman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dude, you need to use a sarcasm tag or something... I wasted thre of my lifetime quota of clicks following your links, thinking "he's got it completely opposite"

  3. Re: Warranty Shouldn't Matter on GPUs Dropping Dead In 2011 MacBook Pro Models · · Score: 1

    I have to wonder what the result will be if all new macs having their ssd chips soldered to the motherboard? I mean, you cant just buy one used and swap the harddrive anymire. when those chios die, theyre dead for good. woukd putting the ssd on a daughter card be that difficult? even if apple diesnt want it user serviced, it woukd save theur techs a ton of time when needing to repaur them, and would probabky speed up the buikd to order process

    I digress im just a lowly end user and tim cook is master of the supply chain

  4. You just know the nsa is gonna love this. Sure, the nro already has satellites, but think of how many more eyeballs there'll be available to co-opt.

  5. Re: What's good for the goose on Counterpoint: Why Edward Snowden May Not Deserve Clemency · · Score: 2

    I don't know if you're serious as someone else rated you funny, but as the lack of terrorist attacks since 9/11 is cited often enough as reason to justify all of our countermeasures, I'll assume you're serious.

    While 9/11 was a tragedy, let's also not forget that it was a singular event. Would a huge expansion in the intelligence community have stopped it? Who knows. Personally, I think the thing that would have had the greatest chance of stopping it would have been a commander in chief who would have taken memos from his intel guys that said things like "al Qaeda training to use planes in the us", "bin laden determined to strike at the us" and "all the alarm lights are flashing red" seriously might have done the trick. Instead, he sleeps on the job and our massively expanded intelligence apparatus is turned against us instead.

  6. Re: It takes a village... on Memo To Parents and Society: Teen Social Media "Addiction" Is Your Fault · · Score: 1

    Whenever I go to my hometown, I'm struck by the dearth of kids hanging out like we used to. They just are nowhere to be found. But the, there sure are a lot of no loitering signs, no skateboarding signs. I assumed that they're staying home on their own accord, playing tony hawk instead of trying to actually skate on their own. But then, when friends drop their kids off places, they leave but expect them to answer their phone at a moments notice. Worse, I think, is using gps to track them. And then, even when they're home, parents now have an array of trully scary monitoring software. Kids today really do lack the freedoms that kids of yesteryear had. I just assumed that they liked it, for the most part, rather than herding into all the chat apps simply because they can't see their friends face to face anymore.

  7. Re: oh boy... on Mark Zuckerberg Gives $990 Million To Charity · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not like he did a sham transfer to a strawman. He transferred them to his foundation, irrevocably. Just because the foundation has his name doesn't mean he gets anything from it. Aside from getting to vote the shares the way he and the rest of the board agree, the shares are gone to him - any appreciation, all dividends, they all are for the bill and Melinda gates foundations benefit, and that organization publicly discloses their tax return so you can verify that.

    Creating and funding that foundation did nothing with regards to microsofts antitrust case, except make bill a lot less rich (but still in the top 3)

  8. Re: Bubble? Not necessarily .... on The FBI's Giant Bitcoin Wallet · · Score: 1

    Yes, ASIC's can hash SHA256. But suppose a flaw is found in SHA256 - not a crushing flaw that renders it useless, but something theoretical enough that researchers are worried. My bet is that Bitcoin would stay put on SHA256 because of the huge investment in custom hardware to do the work.

    I've been following Bitcoin for a long time now (comparatively to many, at least). And i think the move to ASIC is the worst thing that could have ever happened to it. Each day that goes by, bitcoin becomes even less "peer to peer" than it was before. As a fan of the peer to peer currency idea, I think that's a net negative.

  9. Re: Bubble? Not necessarily .... on The FBI's Giant Bitcoin Wallet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Youre right, it is a 1.0 attempt at a peer to peer currency. But it'll be next to inpossible to go back to the drawing board on it. Too much vested interest. Think all those people who have spent tens of millions (most likely) on mining equipment will endorse even a slight change to the algorithm that renders their equipment useless? Not likely. And that's just at the simest level. Then there's more fundamental things like block generation rate ( which is the time for a transaction to get into the block chain), even if 90% of people thought it should be changed, it's not a democratic process - so long as the important people thought otherwise, nothing would happen.

    Point out enough of this on the bitcoin boards and you're told "if you don't like it make your own" but then if you make your own, at best it's called a cheap knockoff with a couple parameters changed, at worst it get attacked by bitcoin miners in the name of "defending bitcoin"

  10. Re: Automatons vs performers. on Ask Slashdot: Can Digital Music Replace Most Instrumental Musicians? · · Score: 1

    Luddites are on slashdot?!?

  11. Re: Article Ownership on Have 100GB Free? Host Your Own Copy of Wikipedia, With Images · · Score: 1

    What really impresses me is that it downloads the entire Wikipedia, with "no internet connection required!" That's an engineering feat if I've ever heard of one!

  12. Re: Most Obvious Conspiracy Ever. on US Government Embraces Bitcoin in Hearing on Virtual Currency · · Score: 1

    Public servants are the only ones that have legally been able to trade on inside information. Why would they stop now?

  13. Re: Translation on US Government Embraces Bitcoin in Hearing on Virtual Currency · · Score: 1

    25 bitcoins every 7 or 8 minutes. That's the max. And that's supposing they deployed so much hashing power that the rest of the network (ie -- all the miners currently deployed, in production, or contemplated to be in construction) only accounted for the slimmest percentage of the resulting network.

    Having the us government involved might be beneficial, only in the sense that when block rewards diminish, if the fees aren't enough to reward miners to continue, then having a "miner of last resort" available would probably lend itself to stability. Who knows though.

  14. Re: Oh look! on US Government Embraces Bitcoin in Hearing on Virtual Currency · · Score: 1

    Because it's backed by the general revenues as taxing authority if the United States. Big difference when your a government and can arbitrarily adjust all the externalities to suit your needs.

  15. Re: Legacy Support on Apple II DOS Source Code Released · · Score: 1

    Because, well, windows sucks. It's redeeming quality is the huge amount of software that's available for it. Take that away, and there's nothing left.

  16. Re: Legacy Support on Apple II DOS Source Code Released · · Score: 1

    Kind of like every version of windows was an unstable POS until they dropped all of the dos underpinnings from it? Or should companies who have realized their products have outlived their utility be forced to continue to support them with their current products even decades later?

  17. Re:Already in models on Nebraska Scientists Refuse To Carry Out Climate Change-Denying Study · · Score: 1

    why is that so bad? What happens if they drop all human variables from the models and discover that the change would not be nearly as severe as is now claimed? Wouldn't that bolster the theory that they're so adamant on protecting that they won't even do research that doesn't involve it?

    Like, what if a politician said "i don't believe in dark matter. do a study and demonstrate what the universe would be like if there wasn't any dark matter in it". Would scientists simply refuse to even broach the subject? Of course, dark matter is not at all politicized, so they wouldn't be afraid of their names appearing on a study that disputes that, even if the result of it is that dark matter must exist of the universe to behave as it does...

  18. science? on Nebraska Scientists Refuse To Carry Out Climate Change-Denying Study · · Score: 1

    So, scientists refuse to conduct research that might call into question their own previous findings and presumptions? What if "scientists" refused to conduct any studies or research into weather systems because the research could be used to overturn their own beliefs that the weather is controlled by the gods?

    I'm sorry, I just don't agree; it's a complex issue and every angle needs to be explored, if nothing else than to quantify the effect of natural vs. unnatural causes. To refuse to do research because it concentrates only on the natural side of climate change seems, well, unscientific. This shows just how bad it is for society as a whole that science is as politicized as it is; scientists are now refusing to conduct research that goes against the community consensus.

  19. Re:Seized? on FBI Seized 144,000 Bitcoins ($28.5 Million) From Silk Road Bust · · Score: 1

    Yes, if you 51% the network. But you'd undo every payment that occurred since then, and you'd undo every miners block reward as well. Therefore, no one will possibly go along with that idea.

  20. Re:Well on FBI Seized 144,000 Bitcoins ($28.5 Million) From Silk Road Bust · · Score: 1

    So, your government arresting someone who allegedly tried to have two people executed isn't helping you? Not only tried, but he thought he succeeded. His jaw probably hit the floor when he found out both his hits were nothing more than fantasies in his own mind.

  21. Re:Well on FBI Seized 144,000 Bitcoins ($28.5 Million) From Silk Road Bust · · Score: 1

    They're in a brand new wallet; all the coins were transferred in on 10/25/2013. So even if someone had a backup of DPR's wallet (which they don't, otherwise they would have moved them themselves already), the coins are gone from it now. And if the coins had already been spent, it would be obvious, too (the block chain.info link above would show a zero balance).

    Moral of the story; Crime pays. Lots. But what good is that if you can't benefit from that pay?

  22. Re: Sounds ominous, but... on TSA Airport Screenings Now Start Before You Arrive At the Airport · · Score: 1

    It was the mid or late 90's, I recall I had a 4 or 5 am flight to Chicago; slept through all my alarms and my bosses wife was banging on my door 45 minutes before takeoff. Unbelievably, we were at the airport 30 minutes later, and I had to book it through the terminal. When I got to the gate, the stewardess was laughing and said "you must be lucas!" I was like "how'd you know?" And she sAid "your boss is in first class, he said if someone came running as if his job depended on it, that would be you"

    Nowadays? Not even a chance. I got to the airport for a filth a couple years ago with 29 minutes to spare, but because it was 29 minutes and not 31, ticketing refused to give me a ticket; the security lines were empty.

    Took a call to JetBlue's headquarters who somehow got me waved through. Thankfully I made it to my cousins wedding!

  23. Re: Terrible summary on Researchers Show Apple Can Read iMessages · · Score: 2

    Has apple ever claimed that iMessages were secure? I'm not thinking so. Just that you could send iMessages to other ios users and not get billed for lots of texts, which are far less secure still than iMessages. Next story?

  24. Re: Money for his defense on DOJ Hasn't Actually Found Silk Road Founder's Bitcoin Yet · · Score: 1

    People have to get this idea of him benefitting from this coin stash out of their heads. Not gonna happen.

    For one, there was no back up plan, no person he delegated responsibility to make transfers in his absence. He said as much in his forbes interview; that he delegated customer service responsibilities but it was him and only him that could manage the site or it's bitcoins. No reason to disbelieve it. Maybe early on, he had delegated but after the first employee theft (the first alledged hit), certainly he would have moved to change that , as paranoid as he seemed to be in some regards.

    Second, even if somehow he gets his sentence reduced, it'll certainly be preconditioned on his turning over his remaining proceeds. They won't say "give us your money and you're free" to his "I'm sorry, I would I forgot my key though" and reply "ok, sounds good, you're free"

    They'll instead say "were sorry you forgot; if you ever happen to remember, let us know and then we'll start arranging your release. Til then well just hold you on contempt charges since you've served your original sentence"

    No. There's no way he's being released any time in the future if there's even a question that he could access those funds. Maybe he should start praying that bjtcoin finally reaches its overdue demise so that the Feds don't think he has anything of value any longer. One day...

  25. Re: SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid on RMS On Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before · · Score: 1

    Ok, you run OSS software on your desktop. If your email is hosted,you're still f'ed. Or your host your own email (at your house) so the nsa just taps your recipients emails instead. And is there even such thing as ssl for dns lookups?

    There's many weak links, even running your entire system with 10%security means that the "adversary" (I use that term since that's what they call us) still gets 50% of it. Which is more than enough to reconstruct the whole.
    Free software isn't a panacea. It is closer to it though