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User: someSnarkyBastard

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  1. Re:Isn't it empty? on Shots Fired At US Capitol · · Score: 1

    They're home watching CSPAN with a bowl of popcorn and thinking "Mission Accomplished".

    I see what you did there...

  2. Re:Funny how different news outlets react on Shots Fired At US Capitol · · Score: 1, Funny

    11:05 for Fox though

  3. Re:Misunderstanding what trust is on Security After the Death of Trust · · Score: 1

    So, an observing user can indeed spot this. Only the browser's automatic check (based solely on the CA's signature) will be fooled by this.

    And how many users do you think bother to regularly check every SSL cert is indeed legit? I'll be generous and assume single-digit percentages (realistically, I would put it closer to less than 1%)

    Now we move on to the next question, whose fault is this? The users for not being more vigilant? The browsers being lazy? Both? Other third parties? (Insert well-loved TLA name here) All the above?

    The Internet may have been developed in part by the military but it was not built on an adversarial (paranoid) security model, the default is to trust the other party. Web browsers constantly crow at every update about how they now support the latest greatest security tricks to keep you safe so you don't need to worry your little head about the big bad hackers. The general public still by and large consider computers and technology to be only a step or two removed from magic and blindly trust the system because that is what they have been conditioned to do.

    This is a perfect storm scenario, really and truly.

  4. Re:Gah! on Security After the Death of Trust · · Score: 1

    Actually the script would kind of write itself, He lives in Bikini Bottom and works for a crab after all...all that's missing is Squidward coming out in drag...

  5. Re:Hardware on Security After the Death of Trust · · Score: 1

    You do realize that the Loongson chip was developed by the People's Republic of China right? Not the first place I'd look for backdoor-free chip designs...

  6. Re:most people don't want to bother on Security After the Death of Trust · · Score: 1

    People have always been like this as long as civilization has been around. Some people fully understand a technology and take the details of it into their own hands, while others are more comfortable with someone else providing the expertise.

    This. Those individuals don't understand the problem, don't want to understand the problem, and frankly don't care about the problem. To them it isn't a problem, or at least not their problem. Now, you harping on about it and making it their problem on the other hand...different story...

  7. Re:Minimal Trust: on Security After the Death of Trust · · Score: 1

    You realize that you just demonstrated that the NSA gives fuck all about their "mandate" right? (or at least their public one)

  8. Re:Fuck them all. on U.S. Spy Panel Is Loaded With Insiders · · Score: 1

    Third? When was the Second?

  9. Re:Hope and change on U.S. Spy Panel Is Loaded With Insiders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They can't afford it but the rest of us can...and do. Ultimately their care comes out of our collective pockets in the form of massive insurance premiums and hospital bills.

  10. Re:Hope and change on U.S. Spy Panel Is Loaded With Insiders · · Score: 1

    Moderate in regards to the competition. When one side is borderline fascist (no Godwinning, I speak strictly in the economic-political sense of the word, no goose-stepping skinheads) and the other is merely corporatist, the middle ground is gonna lie somewhere to the right regardless. The only question is how far afield will they go.

    As to an actual left-wing candidate - fuggitaboutit. Sadly there is still more then enough voters that reflexively associate socialism or even liberalism with satanic worship and insidious plots to sap our precious national essences to make any serious national figure from the left DOA.

  11. Re:This is news? on Security Researchers Rewarded With $12.50 Voucher To Buy Yahoo T-Shirt · · Score: 1

    Do you have any proof whatsoever that the security researchers in question made such demands?

    No?

    Then lay off the ad hominums and red herrings.

  12. Re:Hopefully on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    Most F/OSS Android apps usually include a link to github or the like in their descriptions...or at least the ones I use.

    Try again.

  13. Re:Another strategy on Existing Drugs Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs · · Score: 1

    And if you are one of the many poor slobs whose health insurance is "go to the ER and hope they write off the check because I am in poverty and have no hope of paying it back"?

    Recall that several congress critters cited exactly that scenario when they were debating against single payer health reform ("We already have single-payer health care, just go to your local Emergency Room!")

  14. Re:As a world traveler on Senators Push To Preserve NSA Phone Surveillance · · Score: 1

    Are we not constitutionally bound to defend ourselves against such evil?

    Shush, Honey Boo Boo is on...

  15. Re:I agree on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    Actually there is such a thing as a standard Linux layout: the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

    That said, Ubuntu is not alone in ignoring it though... /me glares at Fedora

  16. Re:Yes. on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    Or you really like the idea of "one app for one purpose" or simply an possess anathema to clutter.

  17. Re:Yes. on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 2

    Fedora -- stable?! BWAHAHAHA

    Fedora has never billed itself as stable, quite the opposite in fact, they are notable for introducing bleeding edge features that might bork your box. Install Fedora to production - let alone mission critical - systems at your peril.

  18. Re:Yes. on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    Or for the RPM diehards there is always OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, rolling release with fairly fresh packages (last I looked my kernel was at 3.11 or so)

  19. Re:Yes. on Ask Slashdot: Are We Witnessing the Decline of Ubuntu? · · Score: 1

    Is it still compiling?

  20. Not directly but then you need to look at all the related expenses that flow from the DEA's activities. To wit:
    * Incarceration costs for non-violent drug offenders
    * Court costs for said drug offenders
    * Increased police footprint for drug surveillance
    * SWAT teams and other paramilitary-esque police teams used to serve warrants to non-violent drug offenders
    * Wrongful death suites from when said SWAT teams raid the wrong house and shoot someone (or someone's pet) that had absolutely nothing to do with drugs
    * Maintenance of "fusion centers" and other data sharing services between disparate law enforcement organizations

    and so on...

  21. Re:The Obama Administration... on DEA Argues Oregonians Have No Protected Privacy Interest In Prescription Records · · Score: 1

    No, the problem with democracy is that we are all obsessing over ensuring that the wrong lizards don't get in.

  22. Re:The enigma on Frameworks 5: KDE Libraries Reworked Into Portable Qt Modules · · Score: 2

    Or maybe somebody will create a new desktop based on the QT libraries?

    They did, it's called Razor-Qt. It's still in heavy development last I looked but they have packages available for several of the major distros out there.

  23. Re:One way to stop it perhaps. on Utility Sets IT Department On Path To Self-destruction · · Score: 1

    (yes, I am replying to myself, bite me mods)

    Alternatively, if you want a national sales tax, basically the VAT that the UK has, you are still shafting the poor as that tax will be applied to food and other essentials, driving up their costs. The rich could soak the costs with little problem but the poor would not. Basically it all comes down to the size of the pie, if I take a quarter of an 8 inch pie that does not leave a lot for everyone else. If I take a quarter of a 24 inch pie that still leaves plenty of pie for everyone else.

    Of course, you could create exemptions from the VAT but that would destroy the simplicity of it and open the door for abuse all over again. (Would caviar be exempt from the tax? It's a food after all...a luxury food yes but still technically a food)

  24. Re:One way to stop it perhaps. on Utility Sets IT Department On Path To Self-destruction · · Score: 1

    The issue with a flat or "fair" tax is that it still shafts the poor. Let's say the tax is 10% of gross income, apply that to a median family making $50,000 per year. That makes for a $5,000 tax, leaving $45,000 for the family to live on. All in all, that's not a whole lot to live on, enough to pay rent, utilities, bills, and maybe save a a little for college, vacations, or a rainy day fund. Now let's apply that tax to a family making $500,000 per year. Yes, they pay more, $50,000 to be precise, but that leaves $450,000 for the family to live on, more than enough to live very comfortably. Thus, the Fair Tax isn't really fair, it's actually regressive in that it disproportionately affects the poor compared to the rich.

  25. Re:Not controlled by Red Hat? on Fedora Project Turns 10 · · Score: 1

    Rebuttal: RHEL derived Linuxes such as CentOS and Scientific Linux are actually able to maintain binary compatibility with RHEL They have access to the same source as the paying customers, they just don't get the updates quite as fast because of the delay between Read Hat publishing the patch and the third-party package maintainers compiling and uploading said patch to their respective repositories.

    Fedora has always billed itself a test-bed for new, potentially unstable technologies. You don't want potentially broken packages? Don't use Fedora.