Slashdot Mirror


User: PFactor

PFactor's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
170
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 170

  1. "The device also contains an RFID and GPS chip that allow ANYONE WHO CAN GAIN ACCESS TO THE REMOTE SERVER to see where my car is at any given moment, to voluntarily track my trips, and to even optionally display DMV-approved customized messages in a small font below the plate number itself. "

  2. Though I guess I've been missing his influence around /. for years.

  3. Highlights a privacy concern on Why Alexa Won't Light Up During Amazon's Super Bowl Ad (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    transmit an inaudible acoustic signal to [..] Alexa

    But we promise we're not using this to send a tiny packet indicating you were exposed to a given advertisement, so we can send that to advertisers for money.

    ...Why are you laughing? We can tell because you paid for an always-on, internet-connected microphone in your home.

  4. You, me, and a few hundred of our newest friends!

  5. So here's a question: on Amazon May Give Developers Your Private Alexa Transcripts (engadget.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When people speak in Star Trek, the computer is always listening. What changed in that hypothetical future's past that needs to change in our present to make wholesale gathering of our voice comms acceptable?

  6. Obviously not smart enough on 18-Year-Old Mexican Student Designs Bra That Can Detect Breast Cancer (independent.co.uk) · · Score: 0

    I mean, you can charge a TON more for gloves that detect breast cancer.

  7. That's like 1 worse!

  8. Critical thinking on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Skills Do HS Students Need To Know Now? · · Score: 2

    The most important skill I use in my everyday is critical thinking. No matter the technical details of the task at hand, using my noggin is the best asset I have.

  9. Stingrays? on The Government Can No Longer Track Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant · · Score: 2

    This appears to apply when dealing with the telcos to gather the data. Does it impact the use of Stingrays, which fool phones into connecting to them instead of legitimate cell towers?

  10. Re:That wasn't the question on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    Parallel construction at its finest.

  11. Re:The problem on Your Car Will Tell You How To Hit the Next Green Light · · Score: 1

    It would probably work best if all cars had that information, so other drivers didn't incorrectly assume you're just an asshat driver.

  12. Re:Yeah, but women want it all on All Else Being Equal: Disputing Claims of a Gender Pay Gap In Tech · · Score: 1

    Not that I disagree with your point but clothing and makeup purchases can be amortized over several dates. A man might pay less overall than that specific woman, but he is probably paying more for the date he is actually on with her. She can wear the same outfit, use the same makeup, and have the same haircut for another date the next night and her cost per date just halved.

  13. Re:Summary that misrepresents the Article... *shoc on Report: Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) Scans Your DNS History · · Score: 2

    What he means is that there are rainbow tables available for many MD5 hashes. There is software that can search hundreds of thousands of possible hashes per second. You don't need to calculate the MD5 hash over, you just have to do a simple text compare, followed by a lookup in the rainbow table. If you have a rainbow table of the major hack sites in which you're interested, I bet it doesn't take more than a second or two to determine if the hash you sent is of one of those sites. Maybe that doesn't fit your definition of easily enumerable, but it fits mine.

  14. Re:We need a workers government on Full Details of My Attempted Entrapment For Teaching Polygraph Countermeasures · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Respectfully, that's not an argument; it's a rant with a basis in reducto ad absurdem. I'm not saying I disagree with you (or even that I agree). I'm pointing out that you did not refute a single point with anything approaching valid logic.

  15. Re:Smart guns... on Hardly Anyone Is Buying 'Smart Guns' · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I cannot conceive of a circumstance where I would be intimidated by any item, while in the absence of belligerent people. The presence of belligerent people on the other hand, may intimidate me without the presence of that item. It's clear to me that items are not what make the world dangerous.

  16. Re:Risk vs. Reward? on Drones: Coming Soon To the New Jersey Turnpike? · · Score: 1

    Not to pick nits, but you should really use metric units in your measurements. 1 imperial fuckton = 1 metric asston.

  17. Re:Jupiter Tape? on Former FBI Agent: All Digital Communications Stored By US Gov't · · Score: 1

    You can increase the complexity but you cannot prevent convergence to unity. Anonymity gradually drops to zero.

    That sounds like some sort of horrible Zen mantra. Or something from Philip K. Dick.

  18. Re:"Oh noes! The people keep voting it down!" on Google, Apple Lead Massive List of Companies Supporting CISPA · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That will only work for maybe 200 years. Example: the 2nd amendment's "shall not be infringed" bit that's been blatantly ignored for the last few decades. The founding fathers made that as clear as they could, yet we're still screwing it up. What makes you think we can make our intentions any clearer for any longer?

  19. Re:Individual Song Downloads on Highway To Sell: AC/DC iTunes Snub Finally Over · · Score: 1

    I'm a fan of AC/DC but you do have to admit that it seems like the albums were written by a sentient compression algorithm with permanent angst. "Winrar presents: the AC/DC Collection"

  20. Re:Individual Song Downloads on Highway To Sell: AC/DC iTunes Snub Finally Over · · Score: 1

    Why aren't people impressed with the compression ratio AC/DC achieved?

  21. Re:Most albums have index marks, unlike Amarok on Highway To Sell: AC/DC iTunes Snub Finally Over · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I wish iTunes would let me buy just the last chapter of a book so I can learn whether the butler did it or not.

  22. Onion article on Forget 6-Minute Abs: Learn To Code In a Day · · Score: 1

    At first glance I thought, "Hee, the Onion is funny". After reading TFA I thought, "Sheesh, I wish this was an Onion story".

  23. Highlights the importance of risk management on Could a Category 5 Hurricane Take Down East Coast Data Centers? · · Score: 1

    Here we have a risk that requires mitigation. If you owned the facilities in question you would know your disaster preparedness and would know how much effort you are willing and able to put into enhancing it.

    But since you don't own these facilities you have to trust the companies that do own them to do what you would do (or better). The only real controls you have are in negotiating the initial contract (regarding SLAs, especially) and in designing your system to withstand a failure of one company to protect their facility. That means you have to either buy resources on both coasts from one company or buy resources from multiple companies whose facilities are geodispersed and make sure your code/platform understands and deals with losing one or more of them.

    The leggy gal on the sales team won't tell you any of this. I think most people don't find out about it until the disaster actually happens. It's pretty much like any other piece of your tech stack: the vendors will whitewash the risks and your job is to see through that and manage it.

    I submit this isn't a risk caused by the use of "the cloud" (egad, do I hate that term!) so much as a risk that's part of any IT project and you deal with it the same way.

    So to answer the original question, maybe a CAT 5 hurricane can take those facilities down but the question you should be asking is, "Have we completely understood the risk to the business and have we taken appropriate steps to protect it?".

  24. Re:Think on the children on Could a Category 5 Hurricane Take Down East Coast Data Centers? · · Score: 2

    Did you notice Iran is getting off the Internet? I think you know the answer to your question... /s

  25. Re:Single Sign-On on Ask Slashdot: What's Holding Up Single Sign-On? · · Score: 2

    And as a bonus, the traffic counts against your monthly data limit.