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  1. Re: And 90% of the 90% are the biggest boys on Ask Slashdot: How Are So Many Security Vulnerabilities Possible? · · Score: 2

    Insufficient critical mass is probably reason #1. Why insufficient critical mass you ask? Java won users over by offering fairly easy tooling, good documentation, and an ecosystem of developers unified across Unix/Windows. It helped that Java also had a major corporate backer.

    Which of these does Ada have? As far as I know, Ada's limited success is mostly due to it's use by the DoD. Not the best at spreading the love.

  2. Re:For safe integration with existing air traffic on Report: Big Issues Remain Before Drones Can Safely Access National Airspace · · Score: 1

    Any pilot will tell you that birds are responsible for avoiding bird strikes 99.999% of the time.

    If drones move out of the way of airplanes autonomously, then great. They don't though. Hobby drones aren't really the issue here anyway, the real issue is the larger drones.

    Also, some guy goes out and buys a drone, takes it up for a flight. Does he even know that he's within 4 miles of an airport? A lot of people have no idea where the GA airports are. Some really fundamental training on air space rules would go a long way towards safety I think. A few hours of ground school at the most, and passing a very simple exam. Could even be an online thing.

  3. Re:For safe integration with existing air traffic on Report: Big Issues Remain Before Drones Can Safely Access National Airspace · · Score: 1

    Helicopters frequently fly at 300 ft. And I think a drone is more of a hazard to a helicopter than an airplane.

    Also, I bet there are a lot of people who have no idea where airplanes might need to be flying low. One strange wind day, one aircraft with unusually low performance like a Cessna 150 or an old Cub, and one strange airport situation like a Class-D upwind extension and presto, you have airplanes at 300 feet where they normally are not.

  4. Re:For safe integration with existing air traffic on Report: Big Issues Remain Before Drones Can Safely Access National Airspace · · Score: 2

    Historic precedent with airplanes would show this is not the case.

    Companies incentivized to fly as often as they can have sacrificed airplane maintenance and pilot capability so that they can increase their profit. There are reasons that there are substantial limitations that commercial companies who want to fly for profit must meet.

    With drones you'll see this as carring payloads barely within its capability envelope, drones flown hazardously above crowds, drones carrying hazardous materials, pilots without any understanding of human-carrying aviation airspace, etc. I could add a dozen more reasons why being paid makes things more dangerous.

  5. Raising concerns is easy on Target's Internal Security Team Warned Management · · Score: 1

    Predicting which concerns will be used in an attack is the real game.

  6. If you pay me to change lanes... on NTSB Calls For Wireless Tech To Enable Vehicles To Talk To Each Other · · Score: 1

    I'm only putting this on my car if a person who wants into my space funds me with some bitcoins.

    Heck, for a dollar I'll let anyone go ahead of me at a 4-way.

  7. Re:Crap, the sky is falling on Last Forking Warning For Bitcoin · · Score: 1

    This is the part I don't understand- why does the block chain size need to enlarge? The system could just go on with block chains no larger than 1MB, could it not?

  8. Re:Sorry, no. on Ask Slashdot: Would You Accept 'Bitcoin-Ware' Apps? · · Score: 2

    I think there's a great deal to be said for helping people in your community first. The results are more available to you, and recourse in the event of (e.g.) embezzlement of charity dollars is also more available.

  9. Re:Why play games? on Ask Slashdot: Would You Accept 'Bitcoin-Ware' Apps? · · Score: 1

    I try very hard to memorize my numbers, but since my running average in between credit card theft activity appears to be about 1 year, that's a lot of effort for nothing.

    Seriously; I do not give out my credit card number to sketchy sites and try to avoid scams, yet it gets stolen anyway. For example, I am a Linode customer and they announced that they were hacked the day after I gave them my new credit card that had been updated as a result of a motel booking scam in which my credit card was stolen. Replacing my credit card twice in less than one month? Ugh.

  10. Re:Wasteful on Open Source Radeon Gallium3D OpenCL Stack Adds Bitcoin Mining · · Score: 1

    Processing new blocks will still be profitable because of the built-in "transaction fee" mechanism. Miners in the year 2100 may simply refuse to include transactions that don't have a fee of 0.000001 BTC, for example. At which point, there will be so many of them, that itself could be profitable. The profit is then not the fact that you minted 1 BTC, but the fact that you collected all the fees in the transaction block.

  11. Anticipation on Kepler Watches White Dwarf Warp Spacetime · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since the current Kepler has produced stunning science, I sure hope they put another one up when this one conks out thanks to losing the last of its gyroscopes. It's a shame that Kepler is facing a crash just as it is hitting stride.

  12. Re:Contradictory ... on Do Recreational Drugs Help Programmers? · · Score: 1

    I find the experience similar to yours, but I perceive there to be a great deal more "boring" code. When you get right down to it, really only about 5% of code is interesting in any meaningful way. There's a risk that poor workmanship will sneak in, but then again if your tests aren't good enough it really doesn't matter if you're drunk, stoned, stupid, tired, or cocksure, the product will suck.

    The problem to watch out for is to think an idea is good when stoned, then tricking yourself into thinking it is still good when sober.

  13. Re:C'mon Kids on Some Smart Meters Broadcast Readings in the Clear · · Score: 1

    > The hassle of managing encryption far outweighs the risk posed by unencrypted transmission.

    Now that is absolutely not the case. PKI scales, and these days with a SIM card in most phones it is almost free as long as you set it up right. That part is hard, but it's a basically constant cost which gets less expensive over time.

  14. Not All Vendors Are Alike on Some Smart Meters Broadcast Readings in the Clear · · Score: 1

    There's the implicit statement that all smart meters are deployed the same way. Since this experiment shows that one smart meter vendor is producing sniffable traffic. It does not show that all vendors are in the same situation.

    Some vendors are better than others in this regard.

  15. Re:Logical Fallacy Bingo on US Presidential Debate #2 Tonight: Discuss Here · · Score: 1

    No, we are not supposed to turn a blind eye. We're supposed to talk about it openly and voice our concerns.

    And then cash our paychecks.

  16. Old School on Ask Slashdot: What Distros Have You Used, In What Order? · · Score: 1

    Slackware -> RedHat -> Mandrake -> RedHat -> Mandrake -> Debian -> Ubuntu -> Mint

    All the while dabbling in FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenSolaris, and briefly the Solaris/Debian combo.

  17. Re:Darn, no mesh on Contiki 2.6: IPv6 For Everything, Everywhere · · Score: 1

    I see it as a social engagement in Internet connectivity. Today, we depend on rather large infrastructure companies to provide cellular signal. From a social perspective this is not idea:
      * Near monopoly telecoms set the prices.
      * Infrastructure needs to be deployed everywhere (resulting in near monopolies.)
      * Radio transmissions require a lot of power to get to the local tower (or else suffer poor performance.)
      * Privacy concerns; data must flow through the provider's infrastructure, and the provider must know your general location.

    A publicly supported mesh would have to include micropayments in order to incentivize people to put up infrastructure of their own, and would put the network into the hands of the people. Application software remains lucrative, as does hardware. Route negotiations include automated financial negotiations. This is what I'm getting to. And rather that simply trusting our providers to be nice (a rather naive prospect), it becomes intuitively obvious that the network itself is insecure, and that security rests in the identity of the user and their associates.

    The result can in fact be highly robust and performant, without centralized nodes that control routing. Devices of all shapes and sizes can join and engage in the mesh, from radio controlled LED christmas lights to basement server farms. There's a kind of routing called Landmark routing which I personally believe is promising. It basically follows the greatest routing algorithm we know; the postal system.

  18. Darn, no mesh on Contiki 2.6: IPv6 For Everything, Everywhere · · Score: 1

    I see, this is about providing an embedded platform for things that want to get on some local Internet drop. It isn't really about creating an Internet from things.

  19. Great! Now just solve the routing problem! on Contiki 2.6: IPv6 For Everything, Everywhere · · Score: 0

    Sure, a decent enough platform I guess.

    Now, to solve the routing problem! I want to send an email to one of my Contiki buddies down the street. How does the name get resolved and how does a resolved IPv6 address get turned into a route? How about a few miles away? To my buddies in Australia?

    And how do we firm critical mass in the mesh, or provide a network effect to get everyone on board?

    Finally, let's not forget about the electromagnetic sensitivity problem.

    But these are all solvable. Let's go!

    We'll let established security protocols solve the application layer problem.

  20. Re:Trespassing.... on Ask Slashdot: Are Smart Meters Safe? · · Score: 1

    Hmm, you sound familiar. Redi K?

  21. Re:More worried about government than RF cancer on Ask Slashdot: Are Smart Meters Safe? · · Score: 2

    And why would they care when you get up, go to work, get home, or even turn on the grow lights?

    The govt. could not afford to bust every grow op out there, and what on earth would they do with the data about you getting up and going to work? Tax you for not spending enough time at work? And anything more specific than that gets into real paranoia; embed bugs in your house so they can really, REALLY know for SURE that you aren't a terrorist? Blackmail you to work for secret department X? Like, really - a government with that much overhead to run a perfect secrecy campaign would not only collapse under its own weight, but would quickly get found out.

  22. Re:Privacy issue in Europe on Ask Slashdot: Are Smart Meters Safe? · · Score: 1

    If that were happening, then with enough industry-wide or citizen-wide interest, the collection of the data could be audited.

    Actions by the utility could be recognized and profiled, just like your power usage.

    They can track your power - and you can track their interest! Just watch the traffic. It's in the air, yours for the receiving.

  23. Re:Privacy issue in Europe on Ask Slashdot: Are Smart Meters Safe? · · Score: 1

    Where they are going with this is turning the utility model into a power broker model.

    There's a lot more that goes into keeping the electric grid stable than you might ever imagine!

    Consider a block of homes, where everyone on the block has solar power and is selling power to the company when they get excess power. In order for this to work, they have to produce a higher voltage and "push" back on the grid, when the grid "pulls" (in the sine wave of AC.) The systems on the market today just sense how much incoming voltage there is, then pushes back with a slightly higher voltage.

    Now expand to the whole block. Out comes the sun- and everyone starts pushing at a slightly higher voltage than they sense. So the systems all push 110 V up to.... oh 200? 300? 400? How many people are there on this branch and what is the stepping factor at each home? 5V? 10V? Next thing you know, the guy at the end of the block is getting his electronics fried every time the sun comes out.

    So there has to be a higher level of fluidity if this kind of mass-scale distributed participation in the grid is going to happen.

  24. One bitcoin, one vote on Kaspersky Says Lack of Digital Voting Will Be Democracy's Downfall · · Score: 1

    Anonymous and proven to be secure.

  25. Travel, Read, Have Fun on Ask Slashdot: What To Do Before College? · · Score: 1

    You're booked into college?

    Go have fun, make friends, party it up, live your fantasy. You'll never get to do it again, and your summer internship will do nothing for you long term!