You say that in jest. But Gates did help invent the high-consumption culture we have today, or at least he brought it to computing. For much of his reign at Microsoft, the average lifespan of a PC was 3 years.
Bitcoin appears to have its own 'consumerist innovation' built-in, in that it takes escalating amounts of computing power (and therefore, resources) to 'mine' the currency and validate its transactions (which aren't even anonymous or proof against establishment meddling as many have claimed).
Indeed. Believing this garbage is a real black mark on/., IMO, alongside their predilection for publishing climate denier "controversy" alongside quality news about global warming.
The incandescent bulb is a balancing act between efficiency (from high temperature) and longevity. By standardizing on one temperature, they ensured not only that their bulbs wouldn't produce odd color casts, but also no surprises on the electric bill, or surprise blown fuses, or surprise house/workshop fires while trying to get enough lumens for good illumination.
'Techies' have a very tenuous grasp of physics these days.
OTOH, Skype and Bittorrent had successful models for scaling up: People were configured by default to add their bandwidth to the pool. In bittorrent's case, your throughput suffered if you were stingy about contributing.
I2P is probably the closest networking layer there is to combining the goals of Tor with the methods of Skype and bittorrent. It is both highly decentralized and onion-like, and has been steadily improving for well over a decade now. If you happen to have a TAILS disc, its included. However, its not designed to access the regular Internet so much as replace it.
Here is a 2006 article about the IGT Taxibus concept. It definitely wasn't conceived in Northern California air, but in the UK (circa 2001 IIRC).
The problem was they approached municipalities with the idea and no large cities climbed on board. So now the cities have to face the likes of Uber and Lyft who, I predict, will not collectively reach the scale needed to apreciably reduce traffic congestion (one of the aims of IGT). Combine that with no regulation and a consumer protection model that amounts to Yelp.com, and I'll guess that Uber and Lyft will in 7 years be less of a joke and more of a way to elict negative reactions from people (assuming you momentarily lack the gas to fart).
That's not even a carbon tax. There has been a debate amoung environmentalists whether to support cap-and-trade or a tax, with those favoring the latter pointing out the same dysfunction you have.
However, another poster pointed out that cap-and-trade can be made to work. Overall, I think it depends on both the magnitude of the proposal, and the level of corruption in the political economy...and neither of those factors is looking good in the 21st century.
"The government argues the carbon pricing scheme has been ineffective, but national emissions have actually fallen by 0.8% in the first calendar year of its operation, the largest fall in 24 years of records."
Then the criminals will figure out how to falsify the signature with the bad firmware anyway.
Not if the user/admin gets to sign the devices (e.g. when they are initially purchased). Or... why not design the devices to carry multiple signatures (including but not limited to the manufacturer)??
Thankfully, it is possible to secure USB in a less extreme way. An OS like Qubes that can configure devices for automatic reassignment to an unpriviliged domain (i.e. virtual machine) can protect the hypervisor, BIOS, etc. from incidental attachment of malicious USB devices.
Currently, a Qubes user/admin can do this from the GUI on a per-USB-controller basis, but in future will be able to employ Xen PVUSB functionality to manage USB on a per-device basis.
They don't know what's precisely in those blobs, so its presumptuous of Mozilla to vouch for them. Its more prudent to put Cisco's key in Firefox and let Cisco vouch for their own code.
Are they addressing people's problems, or creating gadgets for elite techies? There is a huge ongoing crisis in personal computing because we have an Internet that (understandably) assumes endpoint security, but those points (PCs and mobile) are collections of black-box proprietary chips.
I have recommended running Qubes OS as a way to mitigate the security shortfall created by run-of-the-mill PCs and software, but that leaves us with the problem of trusting hardware designed and produced by a handful of large corporations who are increasingly willing to shaft their customers. Privacy and security are exchanged for maintaining a close relationship with the military-industrial complex (or police surveillance state, depending from which angle you prefer to view it).
In short, open PC hardware should be a priority for the open source community if not the IT industry as a whole. What are open hardware people doing about it?
Why indeed would Mozilla waste their resources on this when stability and security on web clients ought to be their greater concern?
If it were up to me, I would start with self-contained date formats like JPEG that browsers handle frequently, and put that code through a formal verification process. Eventually, maybe even HTML rendering and the browser could be subject to formal verification. This could strengthen computer security dramatically.
1) Color management refers to controlling the color accuracy of the display. Typically this will involve importing an ICC file, or performing a manual calibration sequence. KDE has a not-half-finished module (not included in the core package) for System Settings panel, whereas gnome and unity are fully functional and included by default.
2) You're probably not setting the DPI to match your display and using the default that results in text becoming tiny on higher-res displays.
3) It occurs when the setting is on "group when taskbar is full". It will switch back and forth when there are a few dozen windows on the desktop.
4) You can switch to double-click (as I usually do), but then you have a situation where, for instance, the icons on the main System Settings panel are doulble-click, but going down a level, say into Application Appearance, gives you another set of icons that are presented the same way but are single-click. Sometimes this switch shows up *inside* applications, making the overall UI feel goofy and inconsistent. On the one hand, single-click everywhere can be inconvenient and risky, whereas their implementation of double click is VERY unprofessional. They could simply show an underline on mouseover if the object is single-click and be done with it, but meaningful ques for the user are not this project's strong suit.
5) Yeah... really they should give people a way to get that sh!t out of the way; Better yet, choose a sensible default and leave it disabled so it isn't sticking wacky-useless icons everywhere.
6) The last time I tried, the new Konqueror's kio integrations were broken. The fact is that they trashed their two best-loved apps: Konqueror and Amarok.
[...] 9) Having used KDE since 2000, I'd say the project has a general problem with deterioration. They used to be the most reliable desktop, but lately it seems more like Gnome2.
2) Taskbar overinflates icons when its vertical (no more ability to control it since 4.x) and doesn't care what the panel's max icon size is set to.
3) Taskbar switches between grouping and non-grouping, from minute to minute
4) Very loose UI design leaves me less able to anticiapate how KDE will react to my input, and I can't tell it, for instance, to underline single-click widgets.
5) Activities - A huge waste that detracted from bug fixes and design consistency, and even scared away a lot of the technical users.
6) The pretense that Dolphin is anywhere near as flexible as (the old) Konqueror.
7) Can't control keyboard layout from login screen
8) Can't control trackpad speed
9) Decreasing stability.
I have to use KDE every day. Quite frankly, it only has the "Special Window Settings" really going for it. I'd trade all the rest of the KDE features for a Unity that had Dash replaced with a launcher menu.
Yet, there is still a huge difference between reporting facts from a particular perspective and running a misinformation campaign.
Efforts to downplay the significance of climate change resemble the determined efforts of tobacco lobbyists, in the face of scientific evidence linking tobacco to lung cancer, to prevent or delay the introduction of regulation. Lobbyists attempted to discredit the scientific research by creating doubt and manipulating debate. They worked to discredit the scientists involved, to dispute their findings, and to create and maintain an apparent controversy by promoting claims that contradicted scientific research. ""Doubt is our product," boasted a now infamous 1969 industry memo. Doubt would shield the tobacco industry from litigation and regulation for decades to come."[64] In 2006, George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian about similarities between the methods of groups funded by Exxon, and those of the tobacco giant Philip Morris, including direct attacks on peer-reviewed science, and attempts to create public controversy and doubt.[12]
Former National Academy of Sciences president Dr. Frederick Seitz, who, according to an article by Mark Hertsgaard in Vanity Fair, earned about US$585,000 in the 1970s and 1980s as a consultant to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,[65] went on to chair groups such as the Science and Environmental Policy Project and the George C. Marshall Institute alleged to have made efforts to "downplay" global warming.
So, take your tired Republican tactic of false equivalency and shove it!
TAILS is an interesting suggestion, because it includes a general IP 'replacement' stack called I2P. And THAT is what the EFF should be encouraging people to spread as far and wide as possible: A P2P-routed, mesh-like, torrent-ready, anonymized network connection that isn't limited to TCP and browser stuff. Its even got secure decentralized messaging (also inspired by bittorrent as it uses DHT), so no more Tormail type incidents.
I almost feel like the current generation of network experts, even people like Jacob Applebaum and Bruce Schneier, are rooted in a hopelessly outdated vision of network privacy. They both advocate that the end user not only setup Tor, but also fend for their own privacy with each application's own security scheme. Instead, they could just tell people, "You can reach me on I2P; Avoid Windows; And encrypt your HD". What they offer now is more like a recipe for a nervous breakdown; They want to maintain their Tech Ninja image, so they keep spouting a dizzying array of jargon relating to "solutions" that only solve for one layer.
Offer a version of network access that is general-purpose, is anonymous/private by default, where people can choose how much of their real identity they want to associate with the virtual one.
Dec. 22, 2010: The great Skype blackout Feb. 6, 2011: Skype goes online with NSA PRISM spying (6 weeks after blackout) October 2011: Microsoft completes Skype acquisition July 2012: NSA boasts that "a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism"
Lithium won't be a prime target for grid storage for quite some time (if ever). There are dozens of interesting energy storage techs actually coming to market that have much lower cost/KWh and longer lifetimes. Some are batteries like this or flow batteries and some are not, like the 'icebear'. Even used lithium batteries taken from cars will probably get more of the storage business than new lithium batteries; for now, its just more cost effective and efficient.
The idea of using electric cars themselves as grid storage is an elegant one, but don't hold your breath waiting for it to become a big thing.
Slashdot Mirror
I intend to use a proxy in addition to HTTPS-E.
Then clearly there are problems.
You say that in jest. But Gates did help invent the high-consumption culture we have today, or at least he brought it to computing. For much of his reign at Microsoft, the average lifespan of a PC was 3 years.
Bitcoin appears to have its own 'consumerist innovation' built-in, in that it takes escalating amounts of computing power (and therefore, resources) to 'mine' the currency and validate its transactions (which aren't even anonymous or proof against establishment meddling as many have claimed).
Indeed. Believing this garbage is a real black mark on /., IMO, alongside their predilection for publishing climate denier "controversy" alongside quality news about global warming.
The incandescent bulb is a balancing act between efficiency (from high temperature) and longevity. By standardizing on one temperature, they ensured not only that their bulbs wouldn't produce odd color casts, but also no surprises on the electric bill, or surprise blown fuses, or surprise house/workshop fires while trying to get enough lumens for good illumination.
'Techies' have a very tenuous grasp of physics these days.
Of course, it won't work.
OTOH, Skype and Bittorrent had successful models for scaling up: People were configured by default to add their bandwidth to the pool. In bittorrent's case, your throughput suffered if you were stingy about contributing.
I2P is probably the closest networking layer there is to combining the goals of Tor with the methods of Skype and bittorrent. It is both highly decentralized and onion-like, and has been steadily improving for well over a decade now. If you happen to have a TAILS disc, its included. However, its not designed to access the regular Internet so much as replace it.
The committment to stable programming interfaces is one of Microsoft's strengths; They don't all get the 14-year treatment, but at least *some* do.
Here is a 2006 article about the IGT Taxibus concept. It definitely wasn't conceived in Northern California air, but in the UK (circa 2001 IIRC).
The problem was they approached municipalities with the idea and no large cities climbed on board. So now the cities have to face the likes of Uber and Lyft who, I predict, will not collectively reach the scale needed to apreciably reduce traffic congestion (one of the aims of IGT). Combine that with no regulation and a consumer protection model that amounts to Yelp.com, and I'll guess that Uber and Lyft will in 7 years be less of a joke and more of a way to elict negative reactions from people (assuming you momentarily lack the gas to fart).
That's not even a carbon tax. There has been a debate amoung environmentalists whether to support cap-and-trade or a tax, with those favoring the latter pointing out the same dysfunction you have.
However, another poster pointed out that cap-and-trade can be made to work. Overall, I think it depends on both the magnitude of the proposal, and the level of corruption in the political economy ...and neither of those factors is looking good in the 21st century.
"The government argues the carbon pricing scheme has been ineffective, but national emissions have actually fallen by 0.8% in the first calendar year of its operation, the largest fall in 24 years of records."
http://www.theguardian.com/env...
Good thing you're not solving real problems. What. A. Fucking. Waste.
It just proves that a carbon tax cannot come soon enough.
Then the criminals will figure out how to falsify the signature with the bad firmware anyway.
Not if the user/admin gets to sign the devices (e.g. when they are initially purchased). Or... why not design the devices to carry multiple signatures (including but not limited to the manufacturer)??
Thankfully, it is possible to secure USB in a less extreme way. An OS like Qubes that can configure devices for automatic reassignment to an unpriviliged domain (i.e. virtual machine) can protect the hypervisor, BIOS, etc. from incidental attachment of malicious USB devices.
Currently, a Qubes user/admin can do this from the GUI on a per-USB-controller basis, but in future will be able to employ Xen PVUSB functionality to manage USB on a per-device basis.
They don't know what's precisely in those blobs, so its presumptuous of Mozilla to vouch for them. Its more prudent to put Cisco's key in Firefox and let Cisco vouch for their own code.
Why should Mozilla use their own key to sign code they did not compile themselves?
I always wanted a backdoor in my browser.
Are they addressing people's problems, or creating gadgets for elite techies? There is a huge ongoing crisis in personal computing because we have an Internet that (understandably) assumes endpoint security, but those points (PCs and mobile) are collections of black-box proprietary chips.
I have recommended running Qubes OS as a way to mitigate the security shortfall created by run-of-the-mill PCs and software, but that leaves us with the problem of trusting hardware designed and produced by a handful of large corporations who are increasingly willing to shaft their customers. Privacy and security are exchanged for maintaining a close relationship with the military-industrial complex (or police surveillance state, depending from which angle you prefer to view it).
In short, open PC hardware should be a priority for the open source community if not the IT industry as a whole. What are open hardware people doing about it?
Why indeed would Mozilla waste their resources on this when stability and security on web clients ought to be their greater concern?
If it were up to me, I would start with self-contained date formats like JPEG that browsers handle frequently, and put that code through a formal verification process. Eventually, maybe even HTML rendering and the browser could be subject to formal verification. This could strengthen computer security dramatically.
1) Color management refers to controlling the color accuracy of the display. Typically this will involve importing an ICC file, or performing a manual calibration sequence. KDE has a not-half-finished module (not included in the core package) for System Settings panel, whereas gnome and unity are fully functional and included by default.
2) You're probably not setting the DPI to match your display and using the default that results in text becoming tiny on higher-res displays.
3) It occurs when the setting is on "group when taskbar is full". It will switch back and forth when there are a few dozen windows on the desktop.
4) You can switch to double-click (as I usually do), but then you have a situation where, for instance, the icons on the main System Settings panel are doulble-click, but going down a level, say into Application Appearance, gives you another set of icons that are presented the same way but are single-click. Sometimes this switch shows up *inside* applications, making the overall UI feel goofy and inconsistent. On the one hand, single-click everywhere can be inconvenient and risky, whereas their implementation of double click is VERY unprofessional. They could simply show an underline on mouseover if the object is single-click and be done with it, but meaningful ques for the user are not this project's strong suit.
5) Yeah... really they should give people a way to get that sh!t out of the way; Better yet, choose a sensible default and leave it disabled so it isn't sticking wacky-useless icons everywhere.
6) The last time I tried, the new Konqueror's kio integrations were broken. The fact is that they trashed their two best-loved apps: Konqueror and Amarok.
[...]
9) Having used KDE since 2000, I'd say the project has a general problem with deterioration. They used to be the most reliable desktop, but lately it seems more like Gnome2.
Hmmm...
1) No (working) color management
2) Taskbar overinflates icons when its vertical (no more ability to control it since 4.x) and doesn't care what the panel's max icon size is set to.
3) Taskbar switches between grouping and non-grouping, from minute to minute
4) Very loose UI design leaves me less able to anticiapate how KDE will react to my input, and I can't tell it, for instance, to underline single-click widgets.
5) Activities - A huge waste that detracted from bug fixes and design consistency, and even scared away a lot of the technical users.
6) The pretense that Dolphin is anywhere near as flexible as (the old) Konqueror.
7) Can't control keyboard layout from login screen
8) Can't control trackpad speed
9) Decreasing stability.
I have to use KDE every day. Quite frankly, it only has the "Special Window Settings" really going for it. I'd trade all the rest of the KDE features for a Unity that had Dash replaced with a launcher menu.
Yet, there is still a huge difference between reporting facts from a particular perspective and running a misinformation campaign.
Efforts to downplay the significance of climate change resemble the determined efforts of tobacco lobbyists, in the face of scientific evidence linking tobacco to lung cancer, to prevent or delay the introduction of regulation. Lobbyists attempted to discredit the scientific research by creating doubt and manipulating debate. They worked to discredit the scientists involved, to dispute their findings, and to create and maintain an apparent controversy by promoting claims that contradicted scientific research. ""Doubt is our product," boasted a now infamous 1969 industry memo. Doubt would shield the tobacco industry from litigation and regulation for decades to come."[64] In 2006, George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian about similarities between the methods of groups funded by Exxon, and those of the tobacco giant Philip Morris, including direct attacks on peer-reviewed science, and attempts to create public controversy and doubt.[12]
Former National Academy of Sciences president Dr. Frederick Seitz, who, according to an article by Mark Hertsgaard in Vanity Fair, earned about US$585,000 in the 1970s and 1980s as a consultant to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,[65] went on to chair groups such as the Science and Environmental Policy Project and the George C. Marshall Institute alleged to have made efforts to "downplay" global warming.
So, take your tired Republican tactic of false equivalency and shove it!
WUWT's publisher gets Koch funding by way of the Heartland Institute... so, not "random".
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2...
Now I get to put my first /. mod on my (rather small) enemies list and my exclusion list: Timothy.
TAILS is an interesting suggestion, because it includes a general IP 'replacement' stack called I2P. And THAT is what the EFF should be encouraging people to spread as far and wide as possible: A P2P-routed, mesh-like, torrent-ready, anonymized network connection that isn't limited to TCP and browser stuff. Its even got secure decentralized messaging (also inspired by bittorrent as it uses DHT), so no more Tormail type incidents.
I almost feel like the current generation of network experts, even people like Jacob Applebaum and Bruce Schneier, are rooted in a hopelessly outdated vision of network privacy. They both advocate that the end user not only setup Tor, but also fend for their own privacy with each application's own security scheme. Instead, they could just tell people, "You can reach me on I2P; Avoid Windows; And encrypt your HD". What they offer now is more like a recipe for a nervous breakdown; They want to maintain their Tech Ninja image, so they keep spouting a dizzying array of jargon relating to "solutions" that only solve for one layer.
Offer a version of network access that is general-purpose, is anonymous/private by default, where people can choose how much of their real identity they want to associate with the virtual one.
Dec. 22, 2010: The great Skype blackout
Feb. 6, 2011: Skype goes online with NSA PRISM spying (6 weeks after blackout)
October 2011: Microsoft completes Skype acquisition
July 2012: NSA boasts that "a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism"
Lithium won't be a prime target for grid storage for quite some time (if ever). There are dozens of interesting energy storage techs actually coming to market that have much lower cost/KWh and longer lifetimes. Some are batteries like this or flow batteries and some are not, like the 'icebear'. Even used lithium batteries taken from cars will probably get more of the storage business than new lithium batteries; for now, its just more cost effective and efficient.
The idea of using electric cars themselves as grid storage is an elegant one, but don't hold your breath waiting for it to become a big thing.
I have measured it myself. Two different models of boxen supplied by Verizon consume 35W -- constantly.
Thanks, Bruce!