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User: MyFirstNameIsPaul

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  1. As a BlackBerry user on BlackBerry Launches Square-Screened Passport Phone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can tell you the only BlackBerry I enjoy using is the 9900/9930. It's the best work productivity messaging tool I've found. It's not a toy, like my Samsung personal phone.

  2. Re:Thus the problem with the TEA party on To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes · · Score: 1

    Continuing on with your straw man, I see.

  3. Re:Thus the problem with the TEA party on To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes · · Score: 1

    Oh. My. God. User Overzeetop must be commended on what might be the finest example of a straw man ever posted. Bravo!

  4. Technically, if we're going to bother considering what the U.S. Constitution has to say on the matter, a sales tax is not authorized as it is not a tariff, excise tax, or income tax - the only three taxes currently authorized.

    As an aside, I find it interesting that parent comment gets voted up while A.C. comment directly above it gets voted down into oblivion. I guess the current crop of slashdot mods prefers unconstitutional sales tax to world peace.

  5. Re:IP68 the only thing I'm waiting for in a phone on Do Specs Matter Anymore For the Average Smartphone User? · · Score: 1

    I recall observing around the time the Palm Vx came out that handhelds are about 10 years behind desktops.

  6. Re:will require less water on Laid Off From Job, Man Builds Tweeting Toilet · · Score: 1

    Controllable flush volume is not 'fancier' since it contains all the same elements as the fix-volume toilets. In fact, the controllable volume toilets are likely less sophisticated since there does not need to be any sort of mechanism to determine flush volume - just a simple spring-loaded valve.

  7. Re:Who would have thought on The Documents From Google's First DMV Test In Nevada · · Score: 2

    I agree. This is far more dangerous than cruise control and hand-free talking on the cell phone, dealing with kids in the back, arguing with a passenger, fumbling with other car controls, etc., and should not be allowed in vehicles, because the drivers wouldn't be able to handle it.

  8. Re:Welcome to 2009 on Laid Off From Job, Man Builds Tweeting Toilet · · Score: 1

    Higher water ratio requirements shouldn't preclude more efficient toilets as it may not be where the volume of water comes from. We still have washing of dishes in sinks, dishwashers, clothes washers, washing of hands, showers, baths, etc., contributing water to the waste system.

  9. Re:Welcome to 2009 on Laid Off From Job, Man Builds Tweeting Toilet · · Score: 1

    'Multiple flush volumes' is completely different from the controllable flush volumes the European, or at least the German, toilets provide (you should look it up, YOU'RE ON THE INTERNET). Whenever any sort of fixed-volume flush is inadequate for the task, x*(flush volume) must be used to finish the job (no less than twice the volume), whereas with a controllable flush volume, if the task only requires 10% more volume to complete the job, then only 1.1*(flush volume) is used. I posit that even when compared to multiple flush volume toilets, the controllable flush volume toilet will require less water.

  10. Re:I built a Twitter-enabled litterbox months ago on Laid Off From Job, Man Builds Tweeting Toilet · · Score: 1

    If I hadn't just left a comment in this article, I would totally have used mod points. That's a great feed.

  11. Re:Welcome to 2009 on Laid Off From Job, Man Builds Tweeting Toilet · · Score: 1

    I worked in Germany for a few months and I actually really liked their toilets. I've always wanted to do a comparison of the real-world performance of our U.S. fixed-flush-volume toilets with the German (okay, European - I was working and didn't have much time to travel) toilets. They keep reducing the allowable flush volume in the U.S. to the point that adult-sized excrement and attendant tissue creates trouble and often requires consideration of the appropriate stages to flush (multiple flushes required), not to mention that the U.S. toilet uses a ton of water to get rid of urine, which is completely unnecessary and comprises the majority of total flushes.

    Perhaps a practical project for the Internet of Toilets would be to compare efficiencies of various toilets. I think it would be pretty clear that fixed-volume flush toilets are terribly inefficient.

    I want to point out that the Wikipedia article on toilets is outstanding and even includes an audio sample of a toilet flushing. Someone really deserves some recognition here.

  12. Re:Today's business class is the 70s' economy clas on 3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room · · Score: 1

    Has there been an airline bailout since 2001? A problem with justifying airline bailouts is the 41 consecutive years of profitability that Southwest touts.

  13. Re:Today's business class is the 70s' economy clas on 3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room · · Score: 1

    Air China heavily overbooks their flights. One of my flights from SFO to Shanghai took me 4 days to get onto. They basically just overbook the flights so much that they eventually end up filling a new plane with the spillover. That's one way to increase profits.

  14. Re:Today's business class is the 70s' economy clas on 3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room · · Score: 1

    The coffee table between each seat seems objectively better.

  15. Re:Sales on Ask Slashdot: Future-Proof Jobs? · · Score: 1

    You are confusing sales people with order takers. They are not the same. I think you have very little small business experience, as most have many vendors through which they do business with a sales person, and it ain't stoppin' any time soon.

  16. Re:Sales on Ask Slashdot: Future-Proof Jobs? · · Score: 1

    Anyone who thinks they are going to sell products to businesses (of any size) without using sales people will be going out of business, fast. That is how it has always been and will be for a very, very long time.

  17. Re:Sales on Ask Slashdot: Future-Proof Jobs? · · Score: 1

    hahahha. You don't even need sales people to sell cars.

    Yes, there are no car lots with sales people at them because they are such an unnecessary expense.

  18. Sales on Ask Slashdot: Future-Proof Jobs? · · Score: 1

    Salespeople will be among the very last to be replaced by something else.

  19. Re:Where the fault lies? on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 1

    Are you supporting the claim that hardware manufacturers do everything to spec? That the hardware doesn't have to interface with software?

    I find it rather concerning that so many people place so much faith in so many strangers that they would forgo a 60-second attendant procedure that would nearly totally ensure against data leakage.

  20. Re: Both on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 1

    This gets back to my whole point that when I am giving up control of the device, I would rather have full confidence, and what you are describing likely relies on various softwares that I cannot know if they are trustworthy.

    To fully embrace my paranoia, your rather authoritative tone makes it sound as if I should not wipe the device and instead wholly rely on an unprovable method of protection, thus making a casual reader find your method superior. I will continue to rely on both erasing keys and wiping devices as the best method to protect data on devices I am giving up control of.

  21. Re:Both on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 1

    It's hardware decryption. The key only ever exist within the SOC. Throwing away the decryption key means overwriting it with a new one. There is no possibility of recovery.

    If this hardware encryption/decryption is trustworthy, then what is the difference between it and TPM, which few data experts are willing to trust?

    "Zeroing the storage space" probably does not overwrite anything on flash storage. Flash is very resistant to writing anything to a block unless it has to, as there are limited numbers of writes before the the block becomes unusable. Writing random data will, but at a cost of significant time. And it's still less secure than deleting the key of an encrypted drive.

    I have recently been playing with hdparm and ATA secure erase and enhanced secure erase. As I understand it, issuing the command for enhanced secure erase returns the drive to a condition defined by the manufacturer of the device, presumably one which does not retain any data. Additionally, I found a blog post by Bruce Schneier discussing a report from a trusted security company which stated that traditional full disk wipe methods for HDDs are also effective on SSDs. The notable exception is that the security company did not find any delete-based wipe methods effective on SSDs (meaning, you have to wipe the whole disk to completely erase data). That last bit annoys me: everyone is so concerned with deleting data on far-away devices, yet we can't even delete specific data on local devices without wiping the entire device.

    I have not played around with wiping data from phones, so I don't know how any that applies, but I suspect the concepts are the same. Also, as far as the time component goes, it's unattended time, so little measurable cost to the user.

  22. Re:Where the fault lies? on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 1

    FFS, it's on a time delay, not GPS (that can be spoofed).

  23. Re:Where the fault lies? on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 1

    Yes, much more so than the ones at OpenSSL (IIRC, the Heartbleed bug was reportedly caused by not checking code originally submitted by an intern).

  24. Re:Where the fault lies? on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 1

    To my knowledge, Apple has not published the code they use in the encryption process for which keys are being deleted or the code which deletes the keys. Although I'm not aware this code at least been reviewed by trusted professionals (it may have). It seems like too many people say "256-bit AES" as if it's a conversation stopper, but there is always more to be concerned about. For example, the theory of public key encryption is sound, yet OpenSSL had a security hole the size of a galactic core which gave access to the memory of a web server. Apple software != 256-bit AES.

  25. Re:Where the fault lies? on Avast Buys 20 Used Phones, Recovers 40,000 Deleted Photos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would not trust an encryption method as a replacement for permanent data destruction, but I may be more paranoid than most.