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User: someSnarkyBastard

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  1. Re:Insecurity culture.... on Sociologist: Job Insecurity Is the New Normal · · Score: 1

    Okay. In that, case explain all the intricacies of a 401k to me as if I were 5 years old.

  2. Re:It's amazing on First US Appeals Court Hears Arguments To Shut Down NSA Database · · Score: 1

    The PATRIOT Act is not an amendment, it is an Act of Congress. This Act has been challenged in court and restricted to a degree but it still by and large considered constitutional by the court (at least in the narrow sense that no other court cases involving the PATRIOT Act have been accepted and adjudicated by the Court). Whether or not it should be constitutional is another matter entirely.

  3. Re:Unnecessary on Limiting the Teaching of the Scientific Process In Ohio · · Score: 1

    Okay, I'll grant you, science has gotten it wrong many times...however, you will note that we have newer, more accurate theories supplanting old ones when the evidence does not square with the theory. This is healthy and good, it is growth. The thing to take away from this is that science discarded those incorrect theories when we found that evidence did not support them. That is the reason why science has progressed. Denying new information that conflicts with pre-established worldviews on the other hand is stagnation, no growth is possible without change.

  4. Re:The stupid is strong with these people... on Limiting the Teaching of the Scientific Process In Ohio · · Score: 2

    Yep, and for roughly the same reasons. An ignorant populace is far easier to manage and control from the top. Look at North Korea for a live example of this. With no external facts or even a method to determine if a particular "fact" is grounded in reality, you can insert whatever you like and ignorant people will swallow it wholesale simply because they literally do not know any better. (an aside, the latin root for the word science was scientia, knowledge, very telling in this context)

    TL;DR - Orwell said it best, control the present and you control the past; control the past and you control the future. The most effective way to do that is through control of information

  5. Re:This is good! on Limiting the Teaching of the Scientific Process In Ohio · · Score: 1

    What specifically are people demanding a naturalist explanation of and why is it unreasonable? Where would a naturalistic explanation not fit and why?

  6. Re:Dumbest argument ever on Net Neutrality Is 'Marxist,' According To a Koch-Backed Astroturf Group · · Score: 1

    I'd say it's more along the lines of Snow Crash or Shadow Run back story. All that's missing is the CIA throwing out an IPO...

  7. Re:If systemd is deemed going against unix philoso on Choose Your Side On the Linux Divide · · Score: 1

    And I'm sure that the five people who use it are quite happy

  8. Re:A complex, fragile, unmanageable TURD on Choose Your Side On the Linux Divide · · Score: 1

    PC-BSD would probably be your best bet for a desktop BSD. It's got the same newbie-friendly vibe that you see with *buntu but is pure FreeBSD under the hood.

  9. Re:Fork SystemD on Choose Your Side On the Linux Divide · · Score: 1

    Fork bomb it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure...

  10. Re:They don't go away on Web Trolls Winning As Incivility Increases · · Score: 1

    I think the GP was referring to the Westboro Baptist Church, which could be considered a "cult" instead of a "church" depending on who you asked.

  11. Re:Recording Apps on Comcast Drops Spurious Fees When Customer Reveals Recording · · Score: 1

    Total Recall in my case, it's a freemium app, $10 to unlock full features though.

  12. Re:First post on Snowden Granted 3 More Years of Russian Residency · · Score: 1

    You did not address the point parent was trying to make. just because there are court systems worse than our does not excuse the failings within our own system.

    I believe the name of your logical fallacy here would be tu quoque.

  13. Re:In the clear? SRSLY? on Microsoft Tip Leads To Child Porn Arrest In Pennsylvania · · Score: 1

    Files generally are not encrypted on a one-off basis, instead they are saved within an encrypted "container". This encrypted contain could contain other arbitrary files and will likely use a unique seed value to start encryption, both of which will ensure that you will not be able to find a reproducible file hash for bad images. What you are describing is basically a known-ciphertext attack and is well understood within encryption.

  14. Re:IRS on Ask Slashdot: Datacenter HDD Wipe Policy? · · Score: 1

    ...when it suits their purpose.

    Note the fine distinction made there.

  15. I was thinking more along the lines of Snow Crash or Shadowrun actually; privatized police enforcement working for super-national sovereign mega-corporations.

  16. Re:You show me yours, I'll show you mine on Teaching Creationism As Science Now Banned In Britain's Schools · · Score: 2

    null hypothesis --> there is no god or he/she/it/they do not interact with the observable universe in any meaningfully detectable way.
    your hypothesis --> there is a god and he/she/it/they do interact with the observable universe in a repeatable detectable manner.

    The null hypothesis is the default in science. Proving something is not due to random chance is how science works. That's why we have confidence limits, these limits may be very small but there is still always the chance that it the null hypothesis is correct. This caveat, that a scientific theory must always be falsifiable, is the core of the scientific method; the thought that whatever phenomena we are measuring could still be due to blind luck is why science works as well as it does because it means that we only accept something only after rigorous testing.

    Also, as an aside, saying that life evolved from simpler organisms into more complex forms as opposed to fully formed ex nihilo does not automatically preclude the existence of a god. Deism is perfectly compatible with evolution for example.

  17. Re:MITM needs to be designed around on New OpenSSL Man-in-the-Middle Flaw Affects All Clients · · Score: 2

    Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange allows you to securely share a secret key over an insecure medium. Combining this with asymmetric cryptography to identify parties is how modern handshake protocols work.

    The problem here how to trust Bob's asymmetric key really came from Bob and not Eve.

    You are correct in that the ideal solution would be to talk to Bob over a different medium (like phone) and ask him if that is his key but there are ways to do this over the wire. As an example, several Linux distros sign their LiveCD images with cryptographic keys and post the keys' fingerprints on their web page. Can these be spoofed? Sure, hack the server hosting the files. That requires additional effort (and risk) though which would dissuade most cyber-criminals from attempting it.

    Is this perfect security? No, but there is no such thing short of chucking whatever you want secured into a black hole.

  18. Re:Rumers..demise..exaggerated. on Microsoft Reports Record Revenue · · Score: 1

    You have no idea what Microsoft's culture is like do you? Half of Microsoft's problems are related to it's culture, stack ranking (bottom 20% of workforce gets the boot) destroys morale and actively encourages sabotage and office politics ("I'm sure as hell not gonna be the poor SOB on the bottom of the stack, I'll arrange for Bob's project to go to custard and then HE'LL be the poor SOB on the bottom and out the door!")

    Not to say Sony is any better, they are Evil incarnate, but your rosy view of Microsoft's culture, especially considering how infamously corrosive it is, makes me think you are a fanboi.

  19. Re:Umm, okay, but... on Free Software Foundation Endorses a "Truly Free" Laptop · · Score: 1

    Have you tried looking at the wiki? 1-click installs for all the blobs

  20. Re:Protect your freedom of speech.. on App Detects Neo-Nazis Using Their Music · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily the second group, Republicans certainly acknowledge the existence of the Tea Party but you can be damn sure they aren't gonna give them even a farcical version of "good healthcare" (not that they would take it)

  21. Re:And they wonder why... on Anonymous Member Sentenced For Joining DDoS Attack For One Minute · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...create civil disobedience and not get caught.

    Then you are missing the point of civil disobedience. You are supposed to get caught, especially in places like the US where LEOs like to have a bit of theatricality in perp-walking someone out to the squad car. You want all the attention you can get, that's the point, you are calling attention to something you believe to be wrong.

  22. Re:Oh nos, terrorists! on Imagining the Post-Antibiotic Future · · Score: 1

    I dunno, he seems pretty surly to me...

  23. Re:Is Snowden any less than a patriot? on NSA Wants To Reveal Its Secrets To Prevent Snowden From Revealing Them First · · Score: 1

    Considering that Obama had to publicly promise not to execute Snowden if he were to be extradited from Russia I really don't blame him for running. If he stayed in the US he would likely be a martyr by now.

  24. Re:Trust no one on Ask Slashdot: Can Bruce Schneier Be Trusted? · · Score: 1

    OK lets say that in context your advice is sound and I now thoroughly understand the math behind modern crypto systems. How am I going to be sure the math is correctly implemented? Are you advocating that in addition to having a deep understanding of some fairly esoteric maths I now need to be an expert enough coder to judge the Underhanded C Contest as well? Because that is what you are asking and for 95% of folks on the net or event people here on /. that is asking the impossible.

  25. Re:As someone who runs an IT company on Most IT Workers Don't Have STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math) Degrees · · Score: 1

    Bonus points for creating an expert system to play back various prerecorded messages as the sap on the phones works through a generic T-Tree until they have exhausted all options but to actually bug you. Double-plus bonus points if the expert phone system was designed by the BOFH.