But what seems to have happened here is that users installed an app which, unbeknownst to them, sent copies of the images to a third-party server.
No, it was the recipients who used Snapsaved. If you can receive the image, you can save it somewhere, too.
That threat model is possible to guard against, although it's arguably more an issue with Android than Snapchat that something like that easily happens without users noticing, because Android's app-permission model leaks like a sieve.
Don't try to blame Android for this. There is nothing Android can do to stop people from hooking to other peoples' APIs, especially when the server isn't even running on Android at all.
I've been trying to tell the same thing: physical knobs and buttons don't randomly change place and they can be felt with your fingers even when your eyes are elsewhere. Not so with touchscreens. Of course, there are various kinds of attempts at providing haptic feedback, but that really only means that you'll know that your touch was registered, not where it was registered nor does it help you place your finger at the right spot in any way. It's just kind of braindead to push touchscreens where they don't belong, but people generally seem to like flashy stuff, regardless of how useful it actually ends up being, and companies are all too eager to give people exactly that. Urgh.
Isn't speaking to passengers a distraction too? If a conversation with a passenger starts to get too heated, there's no way to hang up on them.
Around here driving-schools and the books and whatnot teach you to simply tell any passengers to let you focus on driving if it feels distracting to you. You can always argue or chat or whatever when the car isn't moving anymore. Of course, just telling them to quiet down may not always work, but at least it's acknowledged that it can be a serious distraction.
preferably one of the GNU/Linux distros recommended by the GNU project
"This means these distros will include, and propose, exclusively free software. They will reject nonfree applications, nonfree programming platforms, nonfree drivers, nonfree firmware “blobs”, nonfree games, and any other nonfree software, as well as nonfree manuals or documentation." -- Translation: will be hated by most average users and would be totally the wrong thing to recommend for anyone except the most die-hard enthusiasts.
The stupidest thing is that nobody even really uses tablets.
I guess I'm a nobody, but I do use my tablet quite a lot for reading stuff. It's great for that, much more comfortable than reading from a laptop or desktop screen.
Considering how huge hurdles people have to overcome every single time anything is launched into space I'd say these tourists should expect there to be lots of delays and that these delays could well last even for a few years. Once -- if ever -- space-tourism is totally trivialized we could expect delays to be minimal, but as of now I think you really should have any expectations of them being able to keep to a schedule really, really low.
As for the price to flying to space I can't really comment since I wouldn't be buying tickets at all. Maybe one day when we have colonies somewhere to actually travel to, but not as things currently are.
I kind of wish there had been something like Minecraft around when I was a kid, too. I think it's a great way of encouraging some creative exploration and problem-solving and expressing oneself, and I certainly would've needed some of that. I never learned to truly use my creativity and I feel I'm quite stunted in that regards. There are plenty of great games these days that explore various kinds of settings and things and could be of great influence in kids, I just wish more parents were willing to explore and think about what could be useful for their kids. Also, one thing that comes to mind is how my ex has trouble learning stuff, especially foreign languages, so soaking her in an English-speaking environment in the form of a game she enjoyed really boosted her skills; I see no valid reason for why similar approach couldn't be used for children with trouble learning this or that.
And as far as TFS’ assertion that, “Setting a child free on the Internet is a failure to cordon off the world and its dangers,” may I just say, “Fuck you!” I’ve never once felt the need to shield my son from reality. We’ve talked to him throughout his life about the fact that there are bad people and that there are things you should never do online because they could put you at risk in the real world (sharing personal information, arranging to meet people, etc.). I think my son is a much better adjusted young human being for the trust and faith that we’ve shown that we have in him. Teaching, guidance, and trust are much better tools than surveillance and censorship. It’s the same approach that my parents took with me (admittedly more out of ignorance of what the Internet was at the time on their part). It worked out alright for me, and my son has never done anything to make me regret taking the same approach with him.
I agree with you there. Shielding the child from all the bad things seems like a way of causing more permanent harm to the child than letting the kid know about all the bad things and then discussing them. Of course one should pay a little bit attention, but going overboard with protection is just wrong, kids *will* sooner or later find out about all the stuff anyways. You sound like a reasonably good parent, I give you props for that, and hopefully your kids will do that too when they grow older:)
Re:Is minecraft really 'creative'?
on
The Minecraft Parent
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
The creativity involved from my limited exposure seems close to nonexistant.
I don't really see any benefit from it, compared to any other game. Are parents just deluding themselves? Or is there some substantial creative benefit that I'm not seeing?
It's not the game itself that is terribly creative, the creativity comes from those playing it. As others have said, the game doesn't have much going on it unless you make something happen, and that's definitely something you want to encourage in children.
Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the internet, are usually doing things that aren’t so-to-speak legal.
They have no evidence of you doing anything illegal, they cannot prove that everyone using Tor is a criminal, but even the hint of suspicion is apparently enough for them to cancel your subscription. I must ask, however, if such behaviour is "so-to-speak legal?"
However, scientists have struggled to generate human pluripotent stem cells that are truly pristine (also known as naïve). Instead, researchers have only been able to derive cells which have advanced slightly further down the developmental pathway. These bear some of the early hallmarks of differentiation into distinct cell types – they’re not a truly ‘blank slate’. This may explain why existing human pluripotent stem cell lines often exhibit a bias towards producing certain tissue types in the laboratory.
Taken from the article. Basically, even if they shouldn't show any bias towards the kinds of cells they'll transform into they still do, and that's why the need for true placenta.
I hate the keyboards that come with laptops. I have a perfectly good USB keyboard that I always use. Why do manufactures insist on bundligna crappy chicklet keyboard on the hardware? I want a refund for the keyboard, since I never use it.
My laptop is also plugged into an external monitor (the 11" display is useless), so why am I forced to pay for a display?
Oh, but you aren't forced to any of that. They're called "desktops."
The former; it does not consume any resources whatsoever to keep one in a box somewhere. Obtaining one could consume some resources, but you can just store your old phone when you upgrade, thereby sidestepping even that issue. Cleaning up phones after they've been used as loaners by people, tracking who has been given what, charging people for broken loaners, making sure you always have an adequate number of loaners available and so on requires more resources and as such is less resource-efficient. Even less so if you take into account all the resources spent on drafting the laws and then upkeeping regulation on this, as per your rather naíve suggestion. Don't mix resource-efficiency with personal comfort.
You're not quite thinking this straight. In your case you got a replacement for your primary phone in a day. You can certainly get by one, single day on a less expensive phone. Also, there are hundreds of low-end Android-smartphones for $50 that can you well for that time, including Internet-access. There is no point in buying a high-end phone just to let it rot in storage.
Now, (4) what if we mitigated the cost to the store by (a) only requiring them to give out a loaner phone, not necessarily the same model that you have (as I wrote elsewhere, I hate anything that doesn't have a slide-out keyboard, but I'd live) and (b) only requiring the loaner phones to be available from some store in the area, not necessarily the one where you bought your phone?
Or, you could just do the same as any sane person does and buy a second-hand phone that you can use as a backup should something happen to your primary one.
ARM-devices are awesome, fun toys to play with. There's a good selection of them on dx.com if you happen to be interested. I think it's amazing how full-fledged a computer you can get with a 60€ ARM-device, you just need to supply a HDD, kb+m and display and POOF, you're all set. Plus most of the board allow you to tinker with all sorts of addon extensions and whatnot.
Doesn't look good. The colour scheme is basically lots of grey and a splash of red here and there, and why the fuck are there some icons at the top that are spaced oddly and don't fit with the theme at all or do anything useful accessibility-wise?
It's a suit made of metal, of course it's going to protect him against some small fireworks. He didn't invent anything here, metal suits for protective purposes have been around for hundreds of years and in this case it's even pretty poorly made, too. If I covered myself in bricks and then had fireworks launched at the bricks would I also get on Slashdot as an "inventor?"
What makes it decentralized? Do the MediaGoblin-servers communicate with one another? Do they allow browsing of all the servers' contents? I mean, if they're just servers running on machines and not actually communicating with one another then they aren't "decentralized" platform at all. I took a look on their website and at least at a glance I couldn't find anything actually explaining what makes it a decentralized platform.
The obvious questions here are: how many hours, exactly, does one have to play a week to belong in this group of "gamers?" Does the type of the game being played determine if they are "gamers" or not? What if they have long stretches where they don't play at all and long stretches when they don't do much else than play?
How? ON what basis? Apple is not based in China, and there certainly isn't any international law that would compel Apple to do so. You argue:
If they wish to do business in China they have to comply with the Chinese law. It's that simple. I can't for example launch a company here, then start breaking the laws in the US while still being able to do business there. I have no idea why that is so damn difficult for you to understand.
So you really think China would willy-nilly force Apple out of the country, and in the process (because they would have no choice) shut down some of their own largest companies, which make Apple products?
The factories do a lot of parts for a lot of companies, not just Apple. They would not be shut down if they lost Apple, they'd still have plenty of other customers.
You really don't get it. Governments can't just do any old shit they want, and damn the economy. I mean, we know Obama thinks he can, and look at the mess he's made.
You still aren't getting it. The whole point here is that unlike Chinese citizens, Apple does not have to ask for permission to store its encryption keys offshore. It can store them anywhere it damned well pleases. And if the Chinese government doesn't like that, well, they can just close down those companies that work for Apple. Which... coincidence? I think not... are some of the largest, most successful businesses in China.
Oh, please, don't be stupid. I never said Apple needs to ask for permission to store keys anywhere, I said the government can come and tell Apple to give access to the data. As for the companies: why would the Chinese shut down other companies when they can shut down Apple themselves? Apple can't conduct business on the Chinese soil unless the Chinese government lets them, so they have no other choice than to do anything the government tells them to. If Apple were to decline the government could stop Apple from selling any devices at all in China, ban all import of Apple-devices, ban all export of parts and devices to Apple, throw any Apple-employees in China in jail for contempt of court and basically ruin Apple as a company since they still totally rely on Chinese import of parts for their devices. Do you really believe that Apple would be willing to ruin themselves like that worldwide, just to spite the government?
"End users" in China don't want the government to control their information. This is the 21st Century. They're not fucking stupid.
And? The government doesn't need their fucking permission. Do you think the NSA goes around and asks people for permission to mine their data? Why do you think Chinese government would need to do that? As long as Apple wants to conduct business on Chinese soil they gotta play by whatever rules the Chinese lay on them, including giving access to data, and what the end-users want is going to be totally irrelevant.
Slashdot Mirror
But what seems to have happened here is that users installed an app which, unbeknownst to them, sent copies of the images to a third-party server.
No, it was the recipients who used Snapsaved. If you can receive the image, you can save it somewhere, too.
That threat model is possible to guard against, although it's arguably more an issue with Android than Snapchat that something like that easily happens without users noticing, because Android's app-permission model leaks like a sieve.
Don't try to blame Android for this. There is nothing Android can do to stop people from hooking to other peoples' APIs, especially when the server isn't even running on Android at all.
I've been trying to tell the same thing: physical knobs and buttons don't randomly change place and they can be felt with your fingers even when your eyes are elsewhere. Not so with touchscreens. Of course, there are various kinds of attempts at providing haptic feedback, but that really only means that you'll know that your touch was registered, not where it was registered nor does it help you place your finger at the right spot in any way. It's just kind of braindead to push touchscreens where they don't belong, but people generally seem to like flashy stuff, regardless of how useful it actually ends up being, and companies are all too eager to give people exactly that. Urgh.
Isn't speaking to passengers a distraction too? If a conversation with a passenger starts to get too heated, there's no way to hang up on them.
Around here driving-schools and the books and whatnot teach you to simply tell any passengers to let you focus on driving if it feels distracting to you. You can always argue or chat or whatever when the car isn't moving anymore. Of course, just telling them to quiet down may not always work, but at least it's acknowledged that it can be a serious distraction.
preferably one of the GNU/Linux distros recommended by the GNU project
"This means these distros will include, and propose, exclusively free software. They will reject nonfree applications, nonfree programming platforms, nonfree drivers, nonfree firmware “blobs”, nonfree games, and any other nonfree software, as well as nonfree manuals or documentation." -- Translation: will be hated by most average users and would be totally the wrong thing to recommend for anyone except the most die-hard enthusiasts.
There has been a simple on/off - slider in the settings for a while now, no need to install Kubuntu or uninstall the lens or anything like that.
The stupidest thing is that nobody even really uses tablets.
I guess I'm a nobody, but I do use my tablet quite a lot for reading stuff. It's great for that, much more comfortable than reading from a laptop or desktop screen.
Considering how huge hurdles people have to overcome every single time anything is launched into space I'd say these tourists should expect there to be lots of delays and that these delays could well last even for a few years. Once -- if ever -- space-tourism is totally trivialized we could expect delays to be minimal, but as of now I think you really should have any expectations of them being able to keep to a schedule really, really low.
As for the price to flying to space I can't really comment since I wouldn't be buying tickets at all. Maybe one day when we have colonies somewhere to actually travel to, but not as things currently are.
I kind of wish there had been something like Minecraft around when I was a kid, too. I think it's a great way of encouraging some creative exploration and problem-solving and expressing oneself, and I certainly would've needed some of that. I never learned to truly use my creativity and I feel I'm quite stunted in that regards. There are plenty of great games these days that explore various kinds of settings and things and could be of great influence in kids, I just wish more parents were willing to explore and think about what could be useful for their kids. Also, one thing that comes to mind is how my ex has trouble learning stuff, especially foreign languages, so soaking her in an English-speaking environment in the form of a game she enjoyed really boosted her skills; I see no valid reason for why similar approach couldn't be used for children with trouble learning this or that.
And as far as TFS’ assertion that, “Setting a child free on the Internet is a failure to cordon off the world and its dangers,” may I just say, “Fuck you!” I’ve never once felt the need to shield my son from reality. We’ve talked to him throughout his life about the fact that there are bad people and that there are things you should never do online because they could put you at risk in the real world (sharing personal information, arranging to meet people, etc.). I think my son is a much better adjusted young human being for the trust and faith that we’ve shown that we have in him. Teaching, guidance, and trust are much better tools than surveillance and censorship. It’s the same approach that my parents took with me (admittedly more out of ignorance of what the Internet was at the time on their part). It worked out alright for me, and my son has never done anything to make me regret taking the same approach with him.
I agree with you there. Shielding the child from all the bad things seems like a way of causing more permanent harm to the child than letting the kid know about all the bad things and then discussing them. Of course one should pay a little bit attention, but going overboard with protection is just wrong, kids *will* sooner or later find out about all the stuff anyways. You sound like a reasonably good parent, I give you props for that, and hopefully your kids will do that too when they grow older :)
The creativity involved from my limited exposure seems close to nonexistant.
I don't really see any benefit from it, compared to any other game. Are parents just deluding themselves? Or is there some substantial creative benefit that I'm not seeing?
It's not the game itself that is terribly creative, the creativity comes from those playing it. As others have said, the game doesn't have much going on it unless you make something happen, and that's definitely something you want to encourage in children.
Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the internet, are usually doing things that aren’t so-to-speak legal.
They have no evidence of you doing anything illegal, they cannot prove that everyone using Tor is a criminal, but even the hint of suspicion is apparently enough for them to cancel your subscription. I must ask, however, if such behaviour is "so-to-speak legal?"
However, scientists have struggled to generate human pluripotent stem cells that are truly pristine (also known as naïve). Instead, researchers have only been able to derive cells which have advanced slightly further down the developmental pathway. These bear some of the early hallmarks of differentiation into distinct cell types – they’re not a truly ‘blank slate’. This may explain why existing human pluripotent stem cell lines often exhibit a bias towards producing certain tissue types in the laboratory.
Taken from the article. Basically, even if they shouldn't show any bias towards the kinds of cells they'll transform into they still do, and that's why the need for true placenta.
I hate the keyboards that come with laptops. I have a perfectly good USB keyboard that I always use. Why do manufactures insist on bundligna crappy chicklet keyboard on the hardware? I want a refund for the keyboard, since I never use it.
My laptop is also plugged into an external monitor (the 11" display is useless), so why am I forced to pay for a display?
Oh, but you aren't forced to any of that. They're called "desktops."
The former; it does not consume any resources whatsoever to keep one in a box somewhere. Obtaining one could consume some resources, but you can just store your old phone when you upgrade, thereby sidestepping even that issue. Cleaning up phones after they've been used as loaners by people, tracking who has been given what, charging people for broken loaners, making sure you always have an adequate number of loaners available and so on requires more resources and as such is less resource-efficient. Even less so if you take into account all the resources spent on drafting the laws and then upkeeping regulation on this, as per your rather naíve suggestion. Don't mix resource-efficiency with personal comfort.
You're not quite thinking this straight. In your case you got a replacement for your primary phone in a day. You can certainly get by one, single day on a less expensive phone. Also, there are hundreds of low-end Android-smartphones for $50 that can you well for that time, including Internet-access. There is no point in buying a high-end phone just to let it rot in storage.
Now, (4) what if we mitigated the cost to the store by (a) only requiring them to give out a loaner phone, not necessarily the same model that you have (as I wrote elsewhere, I hate anything that doesn't have a slide-out keyboard, but I'd live) and (b) only requiring the loaner phones to be available from some store in the area, not necessarily the one where you bought your phone?
Or, you could just do the same as any sane person does and buy a second-hand phone that you can use as a backup should something happen to your primary one.
I suspect my next CPU will be arm(MIPS)
ARM-devices are awesome, fun toys to play with. There's a good selection of them on dx.com if you happen to be interested. I think it's amazing how full-fledged a computer you can get with a 60€ ARM-device, you just need to supply a HDD, kb+m and display and POOF, you're all set. Plus most of the board allow you to tinker with all sorts of addon extensions and whatnot.
https://soylentnews.org/ is good, but lacks userbase from what im told.
Doesn't look good. The colour scheme is basically lots of grey and a splash of red here and there, and why the fuck are there some icons at the top that are spaced oddly and don't fit with the theme at all or do anything useful accessibility-wise?
It's a suit made of metal, of course it's going to protect him against some small fireworks. He didn't invent anything here, metal suits for protective purposes have been around for hundreds of years and in this case it's even pretty poorly made, too. If I covered myself in bricks and then had fireworks launched at the bricks would I also get on Slashdot as an "inventor?"
decentralized
What makes it decentralized? Do the MediaGoblin-servers communicate with one another? Do they allow browsing of all the servers' contents? I mean, if they're just servers running on machines and not actually communicating with one another then they aren't "decentralized" platform at all. I took a look on their website and at least at a glance I couldn't find anything actually explaining what makes it a decentralized platform.
The obvious questions here are: how many hours, exactly, does one have to play a week to belong in this group of "gamers?" Does the type of the game being played determine if they are "gamers" or not? What if they have long stretches where they don't play at all and long stretches when they don't do much else than play?
How? ON what basis? Apple is not based in China, and there certainly isn't any international law that would compel Apple to do so. You argue:
If they wish to do business in China they have to comply with the Chinese law. It's that simple. I can't for example launch a company here, then start breaking the laws in the US while still being able to do business there. I have no idea why that is so damn difficult for you to understand.
So you really think China would willy-nilly force Apple out of the country, and in the process (because they would have no choice) shut down some of their own largest companies, which make Apple products?
The factories do a lot of parts for a lot of companies, not just Apple. They would not be shut down if they lost Apple, they'd still have plenty of other customers.
You really don't get it. Governments can't just do any old shit they want, and damn the economy. I mean, we know Obama thinks he can, and look at the mess he's made.
The Chinese economy isn't dependant on Apple.
You still aren't getting it. The whole point here is that unlike Chinese citizens, Apple does not have to ask for permission to store its encryption keys offshore. It can store them anywhere it damned well pleases. And if the Chinese government doesn't like that, well, they can just close down those companies that work for Apple. Which... coincidence? I think not... are some of the largest, most successful businesses in China.
Oh, please, don't be stupid. I never said Apple needs to ask for permission to store keys anywhere, I said the government can come and tell Apple to give access to the data. As for the companies: why would the Chinese shut down other companies when they can shut down Apple themselves? Apple can't conduct business on the Chinese soil unless the Chinese government lets them, so they have no other choice than to do anything the government tells them to. If Apple were to decline the government could stop Apple from selling any devices at all in China, ban all import of Apple-devices, ban all export of parts and devices to Apple, throw any Apple-employees in China in jail for contempt of court and basically ruin Apple as a company since they still totally rely on Chinese import of parts for their devices. Do you really believe that Apple would be willing to ruin themselves like that worldwide, just to spite the government?
Let me show you my shocked face ... :|
I raise you my face ... (^_~(__*__)
Does every slashdot article have to come back to trashing the USA these days?
Well, they would certainly have earned that by now.
"End users" in China don't want the government to control their information. This is the 21st Century. They're not fucking stupid.
And? The government doesn't need their fucking permission. Do you think the NSA goes around and asks people for permission to mine their data? Why do you think Chinese government would need to do that? As long as Apple wants to conduct business on Chinese soil they gotta play by whatever rules the Chinese lay on them, including giving access to data, and what the end-users want is going to be totally irrelevant.