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User: smoothnorman

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  1. Clearly a "flaw" they wanted to protect on Facebook Intern Gets Preemptive Ax For Exposing Security Flaw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some (inspired) companies provide rewards for discovering flaws in their products; allowing them to improve them under controlled circumstances. Some (shorted-sighted) companies punish the discovery of product flaws, preferring the illusion of a pristine public image over the security of their clients. Yet this is clearly a third case: that of it being an intentional "flaw" which was intended to provide revenue. So, if there was such a thing as justice at this level (there isn't) then Facebook should be doubly embarrassed.

  2. whois alphabet.com on Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet · · Score: 1

    i guess someone in Munich is about to get rich(er)... maybe (geworden sein ab). "whois alphabet.com":
    Registrant Name: Domain Manager
    Registrant Organization: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
    Registrant Street: Petuelring 130, Dept. AJ-35
    Registrant City: Munich
    Registrant Postal Code: 80788
    Registrant Country: DE

  3. Re:Can we please stop... on Drone Drops Drugs Onto Ohio Prison Yard · · Score: 1

    At least not until you provide us with a significantly more useful term. Remember: it has to be monosyllabic, suggestive, memorable, and rhyme with "bourguignon".

  4. Space Food Sticks v2.0 on Soylent 2.0 Comes Bottled and Ready To Drink · · Score: 2

    "let'see everyone who was alive in the 1960s is dead now, right? so it's time again to sucker them into the 'Bachelor Chow' 'Meal in a Pill' scam" : "non-frozen balance energy snack in rod form containing nutritionally balanced amounts of carbohydrate, fat and protein" (yep "rod form", that's exactly missing here)

  5. Re:Ah, Berlin on Lennart Poettering Announces the First Systemd Conference · · Score: 1

    i really don't want to support Poettering because i don't like the direction systemd has taken. but it's comments exactly like this that make me want to defend him. go with the childish ad hominem statements and lose your argument.

  6. Re:Ah, Berlin on Lennart Poettering Announces the First Systemd Conference · · Score: 1

    "least amusing"? aww... for certain forms of 'amusing' it's quite ...amusing; might take a little careful exploration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  7. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? on The New Google Glass Is All Business · · Score: 2

    exactly! there are private places where the panopticon have been (perforce) put in place. therefore, it should be everywhere public, and in every coffee shop and preschool, and anyone that doesn't like that, is foolish because others have already got used to that in their private places.

  8. Does it still record everybody around it? on The New Google Glass Is All Business · · Score: 1

    That is the quintessential creepy aspect: if you are around someone wearing them, then your image, your speech, possibly the image of any object you're holding (e.g. credit card) becomes the property and use of a corporation. So, just like someone walking around with an leaf-blower full of anthrax, many of us don't want to be around anyone wearing one.

  9. Re:Sounds like he was arrested for shooting. on Kentucky Man Arrested After Shooting Down Drone · · Score: 2

    If your theory is correct, then if he chose another means to bring down this drone he'd be in the clear? slingshot? bow and arrow? One of you tech bright-bulbs should really consider establishing a drone extermination service. "Let *us* handle your drone infestation: Drokin(tm): Armed with net guns and our patented seeker/killer drones our Drokin techs arrive within an hour of your text and quietly depart with the offending device."

  10. Re:And do what? on Antineutrino Detectors Could Be Key To Monitoring Iran's Nuclear Program · · Score: 2

    Where in the various treaties negotiated in the recent past has a "blind trust" as you term it, been an essential part? Seriously, you'd cast out all forms of diplomacy as being too trusting, and instead prefer war? Have you ever been in a war? Have you ever seen civilians killed because they had the misfortune of living nearby a perceived threat? If you had, then I believe that you would (eventually) prefer a flawed diplomacy to what promoters of war would profess to be the perfect solution.

  11. Re:And do what? on Antineutrino Detectors Could Be Key To Monitoring Iran's Nuclear Program · · Score: 1

    What's your alternative? Surely it isn't to forget all diplomacy as pointlessly inefficient and so proceed to destroy all those (and their surrounding civilians) who would even appear to threaten us?

  12. Re:And do what? on Antineutrino Detectors Could Be Key To Monitoring Iran's Nuclear Program · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Then, according to this inchoate treaty, (and many others like it), a demand would be made to inspect the site to prove no violation was underway. If there was no proof provided or allowed, then sanctions would be restored, or even military action taken, (as some warmongers desperately want already done immediately). But yet somehow i fear this simple honest reply wasn't the one that you were actually curious about?

  13. game over man, sell your property, move away! on What Will Happen When Cascadia Subduction Zone Slips · · Score: 2

    Seriously, we're all doomed here on the west-coast, run-away! sell your property, save yourselves! It's all just rain and drought here anyway - nothing to see here, move along. The midwest is where you you should go. All that nice safe open space. Leave us poor clueless left coasters to die. oh... and take all the telephone sanitizers with you.

  14. Re:No Free Speech on Reddit CEO: Site Is 'Not a Bastion of Free Speech,' Change Coming · · Score: 0

    "If you disagree, post. Make your case, explain your disagreement. Moderation is supposed to be factual..." and right there is a major contradiction of moderation: anyone who "disagrees" fundamentally believes that the post is false, non-"factual". So as a moderator, i have to intuit that while i disagree with your statement and that your statement is flawed, it honestly expresses your false state of mind, and not a "troll", (as you're currently unaccountably marked a troll, and as i probably will be soon)

  15. Re:Never heard that one before on J.J. Abrams On "Star Wars" Cast's Racial and Sexual Diversity · · Score: 1

    perhaps we should take solace in this occasional blissful ignorance of past evils (even when they're cavorted about under our noses)

  16. Re:Never heard that one before on J.J. Abrams On "Star Wars" Cast's Racial and Sexual Diversity · · Score: 1

    given your statement, I think you might be younger than George Lucas, or me. Because I hear nothing but that characterization of jar-jar binks. *and* the Shylock interpretation of Watto.

  17. Gravity is bad for you - waterdesk needed on Ask Slashdot: Have You Tried a Standing Desk? · · Score: 1

    Remember waterbeds? you don't?? ("hey everybody! an old man is talking!") So that was nearly there, some bright entrepreneur (you sir, in the back, the one texting his stockbroker) needs to combine the "work paradigm" with the "waterbed conceptualization" to form: the water-station. the mark-III will include a endless lap pool attachment.

  18. Re:Just stick to the mantra on No, Your SSD Won't Quickly Lose Data While Powered Down · · Score: 1

    Excellent advice. (but) back it up on what sort of media? not likely SSDs stored on the furnace?

  19. why did "spiral gestures" never catch on? on The Challenge of Getting a Usable QWERTY Keyboard Onto a Dime-sized Screen · · Score: 1

    8pen "spiral gestures" always seemed to be a fair approach which involved the least amount of finger re-lifting. Then it kinda just disappeared... http://www.wired.com/2010/11/h... http://www.8pen.com/

  20. tl;dr? doesn't matter. those links don't answer... on Researchers Identify 'Tipping Point' Between Quantum and Classical Worlds · · Score: 1

    the original question: At what point, of photon flux, (one presumes), is the cross-over between observed quantum and classical phenomenon? none of those ('advertising') links answer the question. So make up your own number, there will be a constrained uncertainty to it anyway ("42"?)

  21. The corporate hegemony known as the TPP ... on Draconian Australian Research Law Hits Scientists · · Score: 1

    ... is a factor here. If you can constrain your academics for "defense", then you can more easily constrain them for "IP" reasons as well. And there's no bigger business than defense.

  22. Re:link would be nice on RMS Talks Net Neutrality, Patents, and More · · Score: 4, Informative

    yeah. is a bit. here

  23. leap years be damned! on Microsoft Trademarks "Windows 365" · · Score: 3, Funny

    no windows for 2016 2020 2024 2028 2032 2036...

  24. Second link has little to do with the posted topic on Scientists Determine New Way To Untangle Proteins By Unboiling an Egg · · Score: 1

    Yes it deals with Hen Egg-White protein, but it's about overcoming electrostatic barriers to crystallization. The first article involves a urea compound, the second a more esoteric complexed metal compound (Tellurium(VI)-Centred Polyoxotungstate). It's not a direct reference to the first link.

  25. Re:What's the name again? on Debian Forked Over Systemd · · Score: 1

    "dee-voo'-on" the scent of the truly original sysop