We know it wasn't an arc, AFCI (required in garages) would have tripped.
This must be a requirement for some new installations in special cases only. I have no AFCIs or special circuit interruptors on any circuit or any wall outlet.
For example, a simple MPLS-based Layer 3 VPN will separate traffic between network A and network B, but it will not be encrypted. The only relatively safe way of doing it is via a strongly encrypted tunnel.
If there is not encryption, then it is not a VPN.
If someone is selling a MPLS service without end-to-end encryption between the sites and selling it as a "VPN"; then they are lying.
What they are really selling is a tunneled network service, not a secure Virtual Private Network.
Many handheld digital cams make a shutter noise. Mine has an option to swittch that off completely, or adjust the volume louder or quieter of the sound effect.
Someone may have decided it would be cheaper to share the circuit with Internet access. That was *very* dumb of them.
There are perfectly safe ways of doing this -- it's called a VPN, and an isolated network behind the firewall whose only WAN is the VPN connection, to access approved systems; and be monitored by approved systems.
i would much rather schedule a download to occur at night when i'm sleeping, streaming over 0.5mbit would be very poor quality but i can download a 720p movie or tv episode while i sleep.
It sure makes sense.... a service provider could offer a service where you rent or buy a unit with a 4TB hard drive; has most of their media content pre-loaded (encrypted) instead; a couple thousand full movies would fit. And caches new content that you're likely to want to watch based on recommendations/past viewing habits, or that you added to your list, by trickle-downloading over time.
Then you connect to their service; and when you want to watch something.... it's served up from local media; without stressing the WAN.
Clearly someone thought it was useful, or else, the submission wouldn't appear on Slashdot.
Not necessary to remove ads.
Slashdot has them. All the major blogs have ads.
Clearly they generate something for all the bloggers out there;
probably mainly in relation to the relevance of ads with regards to the content.
But I understand sales affiliate programs are more revenue-generating than simple Ads in many cases; where the blogger can make a meaningful product review.
They seem to be treating waste at the most basic level by using lots of chlorine prior to discharging the treated waste.
There are plenty of nasties that will survive chlorine treatment; namely Cryptosporidium, so even that is inadequate --- they should be adding UV and other treatments that truly sterilize and destroy dangerous genetic material
The same applies equally to waste water treatment in other countries.
Regular low-dose antibiotics for livestock causes the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the gut.
This is problematic. If the antibiotic is prescription for humans, then access should not be allowed to use it for non-medical non-veterinary purposes.
If there are life/limb-threatening diseases that the antibiotic is on a short list of treatments for; it should be prescription only.
Fair enough. I wonder how much they patented. If the patent just magnetic based, then presumably you could add an extra pin and only switch on the PSU when you get the correct command over some 1 wire bus protocol.
It would also be conceivable to put a "sheath" around the pin; that doesn't mate with anything, but prevents the bare pins from being exposed
Have a spring-loaded plunger switch that gets forced down when the device is properly plugged in, and power is stopped at the plug, until the switch is operated.
Or put another magnet on the connector side itself that operates a reed switch in the plug.
There are probably thousands of ways to sense "connector plugged in"; without using Apple's specific sensing circuit
You won't get mildly electrocuted by a plug with 16V potential difference across it.
Actually... this depends on amperage and duration of exposure;
You can take a static discharge of thousands of volts, under the right conditions, and not feel anything.
In the very worst case (car battery/hand to hand) 12 Volts DC across the chest can kill and has killed people --- exposure long enough to disrupt the normal heartbeat can kill.
6 Volts at 50 amps or 3 Volts at 400 amps can be deadly with only brief exposure.
Don't bet your life on your power supply being perfectly within spec either.
Electricity; DC or AC apparatus that can generate current over a period of time is nothing to be trifled with,
even if 16V.
Many if not most inventions are obvious after you've seen them.
It's not invention; it's innovation. A "social" leap by Apple, not a technical one.
The fact of the matter; is "security through obscurity" was just fine, as far as the big players thought. The current design was just fine; no need to worry about that, buy the generic part and focus on other stuff.
They were out of touch with the consumer ---- they didn't acknowledge the "yank" problem existed. Just buy the generic connector parts and move on: It would be a waste of money, to go throw together a new fancy connector.
It's not that the connector design was not obvious; they would have easily built a connector with the similar design, without any significant difficulty or need to make an invention step --- they were not motivated to solve the yank problem in the first place.
At least for me, that passes all the tests of non-obviousness and first people to think of it.
I would not agree... Magnet + Exposed pins are a combination of previously known elements.
A connector of your size and shape should be patentable, together with your exact placement of circuits, but not the concept of using magnets and magnetic switches; which are all previously known elements.
When faced with the problem of making a connector that will give way if yanked, yet not fall out on its own --- magnetic attraction is an obvious choice.
After analyzing the design or testing, and finding the damage or shock risk of the pins becoming shorted on a metal object --- the choice to limit when the power is switched on is also obvious.
Again, to maintain the yank-resistant characteristics, you need to switch the power on without relying on physical mating ---- a magnetic switch, or magnetic sensor on the plug are obvious choices.
I haven't even read Apple's patent; I have no idea how their connector works, but I see an obvious choice is to have a circuit in the power transformer block measuring the electrical characteristics of one of the leads, to decide when to switch on power, based on detecting the right signal OR "magnetic field" (if you like).
Download the "Windows XP with Service Pack 3" from MSDN, install that, install VMware tools; do the switcharoo to change virtual hardware to paravirtualized hardware (VMXNET3 + PVSCSI); then go to autopatcher.com and get the latest APUP,
or deploy updates using WSUS....
I have not found things so unreliable.
OS updates are simple enough.... now the.NET framework update process is a can of worms; whether in XP/2003 or Windows 7/2008....
I don't think he'll have a problem getting a new job
Probably not. His mailbox is probably about to be hit with big important companies sending their company's resumes in,
to ask if he has an opening to work with them.
I just spoke with an Amazon rep. He admitted that purchased content can and has been blacked out at any time without warning. I got him to refund every digital purchase I made (only about 3 movies).
I will say... my interest in a method of removing Amazon DRM from my purchased content, for the purpose of ensuring I retain access to it, has just gone up 10 fold. I wonder if anyone is working on it?
Once you get above a given amount of money in the bank, you move from the tellers to the private banking dept and receive a higher level service rep who handles things for you.
That's NOT what I am talking about.
I am talking about John Q. Public going out to buy a Ferrari, not Bill Gates, or someone with established means to buy 100 Ferraris a year without batting an eyelash.
When you get enough money for private banking, then you are in the 10% that a different set of rules that applies to.
For the other 90% of the population, who lives from paycheck to paycheck; when you go out and plop down $250,000 for a Ferrari, there are most likely going to be some questions asked, and the IRS getting their little FYI slip.
After all.... if the bank catches you and reports the suspicious activity, there may even be a reward bounty out from the IRS with the name of the employee who filled the 3949-A on it.
It is possible that at some point, major US Bitcoin exchanges might start reporting the transactions somehow, but that is just a transaction, it isn't "income" or "profit".
An information return is required by law, based on payments that a Bitcoin "Exchange" or Bank makes to an individual. It is up to the individual to report on their tax return what portion of the proceeds are income.
A 1099B is for stock transactions from a broker
A 1099B information return is the form required to be filed by barter exchanges as well. Bitcoin exchanges that allow a customer to sell or purchase Bitcoins ("TRADE DOLLARS") are barter exchanges. The fair market value of raw proceeds of transactions from Barter Exchange must be reported to the IRS using 1099B, see the barter exchanges
Bartering is the trading of one product or service for another. Usually there is no exchange of cash. Barter may take place on an informal one-on-one basis between individuals and businesses, or it can take place on a third party basis through a barter exchange company. A barter exchange is any person or organization with members or clients that contract with each other (or with the barter exchange) to jointly trade or barter property or services....
Barter exchanges have their own unit of exchange, usually known as barter or trade dollars. Trade dollars or barter dollars are valued in U.S. currency for the purposes of information returns. Trade dollars allow barter to take place between parties when one party may not have a simultaneous need or desire for the goods or services of the other members.
Earning trade or barter dollars through a barter exchange is considered taxable income, just as if your product or service was sold for cash.
Requirement for Barter Exchanges to File Information Returns
Barter exchanges are required to issue Form 1099-B (PDF) Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions
If you run it as a business, all profits are taxable, all costs are tax deductible. However, if you claim to run a business and lose money all the time, the tax office will say they believe this is a hobby. Same as someone with a farm raising race horses who loses money every year and probably does it not as a business but as a hobby.
That's a bit hard to claim "this is a hobby", if your entity that is losing money is incorporated and has multiple beneficial owners.
I suspect if you hired good accountants and tax attorneys for your business, and managed it appropriately, you wouldn't much need to worry about the possibility of claims of "It's just a hobby"
How or why would they ever know I bought a Ferrari? Are such purchases reportable in Norway? (they aren't in the US)
If you pay cash, or other currency; the dealer is required to file a CTR to report the Large cash transaction.
If you trade something for the ferrari, the dealer had to fill out a 1099B.
If you take out a loan or pay by check, your banks will record a transaction.
Large transactions in or out of your bank account are covertly reportable in the US behind your back -- your bank is required to report due to the Bank Secrecy Act and forbidden from informing you that they have reported.
If you bring $100,000 into your bank account, or take out a loan for $250k on a car, or you engage in new unusual spending habits, the tax authorities definitely will almost certainly be made aware that you did that.
If someone makes a bunch of profit on Bitcoins, how is Norway going to know if the person doesn't self report?
How they'd do it in the US --- when you cash out your Bitcoins for US Dollars; the exchange or other organization you sell more than $100 Bitcoins to as an individual, has to fill out a 1099B or other 1099 information return, showing the proceeds of the transaction, with what you traded for the money.
In Norway; you may very well be on your honor to report, at least, until the enforcement authority inspects your bank records, or your personal records,
after finding suspicious purchases that they can't explain given your reported income
Slashdot Mirror
We know it wasn't an arc, AFCI (required in garages) would have tripped.
This must be a requirement for some new installations in special cases only. I have no AFCIs or special circuit interruptors on any circuit or any wall outlet.
For example, a simple MPLS-based Layer 3 VPN will separate traffic between network A and network B, but it will not be encrypted. The only relatively safe way of doing it is via a strongly encrypted tunnel.
If there is not encryption, then it is not a VPN.
If someone is selling a MPLS service without end-to-end encryption between the sites and selling it as a "VPN"; then they are lying.
What they are really selling is a tunneled network service, not a secure Virtual Private Network.
Many handheld digital cams make a shutter noise. Mine has an option to swittch that off completely, or adjust the volume louder or quieter of the sound effect.
Someone may have decided it would be cheaper to share the circuit with Internet access. That was *very* dumb of them.
There are perfectly safe ways of doing this -- it's called a VPN, and an isolated network behind the firewall whose only WAN is the VPN connection, to access approved systems; and be monitored by approved systems.
If the majority of miners wanted to, they could invalidate the FBI wallet, correct?
Yes. A code update to treat as invalid, any spend transaction with that wallet as a source.
i would much rather schedule a download to occur at night when i'm sleeping, streaming over 0.5mbit would be very poor quality but i can download a 720p movie or tv episode while i sleep.
It sure makes sense.... a service provider could offer a service where you rent or buy a unit with a 4TB hard drive; has most of their media content pre-loaded (encrypted) instead; a couple thousand full movies would fit. And caches new content that you're likely to want to watch based on recommendations/past viewing habits, or that you added to your list, by trickle-downloading over time.
Then you connect to their service; and when you want to watch something.... it's served up from local media; without stressing the WAN.
5 years ago where I live finally got DSL at 768bps.
Do you have some better tips on how to survive that?
If you can write them up and post them to a blog, then it might be /. worthy.
Nothing wrong with the ideas in this article.
Clearly someone thought it was useful, or else, the submission wouldn't appear on Slashdot.
Not necessary to remove ads. Slashdot has them. All the major blogs have ads. Clearly they generate something for all the bloggers out there; probably mainly in relation to the relevance of ads with regards to the content.
But I understand sales affiliate programs are more revenue-generating than simple Ads in many cases; where the blogger can make a meaningful product review.
They seem to be treating waste at the most basic level by using lots of chlorine prior to discharging the treated waste.
There are plenty of nasties that will survive chlorine treatment; namely Cryptosporidium, so even that is inadequate --- they should be adding UV and other treatments that truly sterilize and destroy dangerous genetic material
The same applies equally to waste water treatment in other countries.
Regular low-dose antibiotics for livestock causes the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the gut.
This is problematic. If the antibiotic is prescription for humans, then access should not be allowed to use it for non-medical non-veterinary purposes.
If there are life/limb-threatening diseases that the antibiotic is on a short list of treatments for; it should be prescription only.
Fair enough. I wonder how much they patented. If the patent just magnetic based, then presumably you could add an extra pin and only switch on the PSU when you get the correct command over some 1 wire bus protocol.
It would also be conceivable to put a "sheath" around the pin; that doesn't mate with anything, but prevents the bare pins from being exposed
Have a spring-loaded plunger switch that gets forced down when the device is properly plugged in, and power is stopped at the plug, until the switch is operated.
Or put another magnet on the connector side itself that operates a reed switch in the plug.
There are probably thousands of ways to sense "connector plugged in"; without using Apple's specific sensing circuit
You won't get mildly electrocuted by a plug with 16V potential difference across it.
Actually... this depends on amperage and duration of exposure; You can take a static discharge of thousands of volts, under the right conditions, and not feel anything.
In the very worst case (car battery/hand to hand) 12 Volts DC across the chest can kill and has killed people --- exposure long enough to disrupt the normal heartbeat can kill.
6 Volts at 50 amps or 3 Volts at 400 amps can be deadly with only brief exposure.
Don't bet your life on your power supply being perfectly within spec either.
Electricity; DC or AC apparatus that can generate current over a period of time is nothing to be trifled with, even if 16V.
Many if not most inventions are obvious after you've seen them.
It's not invention; it's innovation. A "social" leap by Apple, not a technical one.
The fact of the matter; is "security through obscurity" was just fine, as far as the big players thought. The current design was just fine; no need to worry about that, buy the generic part and focus on other stuff.
They were out of touch with the consumer ---- they didn't acknowledge the "yank" problem existed. Just buy the generic connector parts and move on: It would be a waste of money, to go throw together a new fancy connector.
It's not that the connector design was not obvious; they would have easily built a connector with the similar design, without any significant difficulty or need to make an invention step --- they were not motivated to solve the yank problem in the first place.
At least for me, that passes all the tests of non-obviousness and first people to think of it.
I would not agree... Magnet + Exposed pins are a combination of previously known elements. A connector of your size and shape should be patentable, together with your exact placement of circuits, but not the concept of using magnets and magnetic switches; which are all previously known elements.
When faced with the problem of making a connector that will give way if yanked, yet not fall out on its own --- magnetic attraction is an obvious choice.
After analyzing the design or testing, and finding the damage or shock risk of the pins becoming shorted on a metal object --- the choice to limit when the power is switched on is also obvious.
Again, to maintain the yank-resistant characteristics, you need to switch the power on without relying on physical mating ---- a magnetic switch, or magnetic sensor on the plug are obvious choices.
I haven't even read Apple's patent; I have no idea how their connector works, but I see an obvious choice is to have a circuit in the power transformer block measuring the electrical characteristics of one of the leads, to decide when to switch on power, based on detecting the right signal OR "magnetic field" (if you like).
I'm thinking huh?
Download the "Windows XP with Service Pack 3" from MSDN, install that, install VMware tools; do the switcharoo to change virtual hardware to paravirtualized hardware (VMXNET3 + PVSCSI); then go to autopatcher.com and get the latest APUP, or deploy updates using WSUS....
I have not found things so unreliable.
OS updates are simple enough.... now the .NET framework update process is a can of worms; whether in XP/2003 or Windows 7/2008....
I'll upgrade XP to a different MS-OS the day MS can deliver something as small and efficient as XP. If they can't I have to look elsewhere
Server 2012 Core install
I don't think he'll have a problem getting a new job
Probably not. His mailbox is probably about to be hit with big important companies sending their company's resumes in, to ask if he has an opening to work with them.
His job also requires writing things that people want to read. So, you're not really qualified.
In other words: his job is actually a marketing role?
I just spoke with an Amazon rep. He admitted that purchased content can and has been blacked out at any time without warning. I got him to refund every digital purchase I made (only about 3 movies).
I will say... my interest in a method of removing Amazon DRM from my purchased content, for the purpose of ensuring I retain access to it, has just gone up 10 fold. I wonder if anyone is working on it?
Once you get above a given amount of money in the bank, you move from the tellers to the private banking dept and receive a higher level service rep who handles things for you.
That's NOT what I am talking about.
I am talking about John Q. Public going out to buy a Ferrari, not Bill Gates, or someone with established means to buy 100 Ferraris a year without batting an eyelash.
When you get enough money for private banking, then you are in the 10% that a different set of rules that applies to.
For the other 90% of the population, who lives from paycheck to paycheck; when you go out and plop down $250,000 for a Ferrari, there are most likely going to be some questions asked, and the IRS getting their little FYI slip.
After all.... if the bank catches you and reports the suspicious activity, there may even be a reward bounty out from the IRS with the name of the employee who filled the 3949-A on it.
Translation: His contract to remain on, after the acquisition ran out.
He may have been the CTO of counterpane, but not enough room for two CTOs of BT after the acquisition.
Naturally, the CTO of the acquirer would normally keep the position.
It is possible that at some point, major US Bitcoin exchanges might start reporting the transactions somehow, but that is just a transaction, it isn't "income" or "profit".
An information return is required by law, based on payments that a Bitcoin "Exchange" or Bank makes to an individual. It is up to the individual to report on their tax return what portion of the proceeds are income.
A 1099B is for stock transactions from a broker
A 1099B information return is the form required to be filed by barter exchanges as well. Bitcoin exchanges that allow a customer to sell or purchase Bitcoins ("TRADE DOLLARS") are barter exchanges. The fair market value of raw proceeds of transactions from Barter Exchange must be reported to the IRS using 1099B, see the barter exchanges
If you run it as a business, all profits are taxable, all costs are tax deductible. However, if you claim to run a business and lose money all the time, the tax office will say they believe this is a hobby. Same as someone with a farm raising race horses who loses money every year and probably does it not as a business but as a hobby.
That's a bit hard to claim "this is a hobby", if your entity that is losing money is incorporated and has multiple beneficial owners.
I suspect if you hired good accountants and tax attorneys for your business, and managed it appropriately, you wouldn't much need to worry about the possibility of claims of "It's just a hobby"
How or why would they ever know I bought a Ferrari? Are such purchases reportable in Norway? (they aren't in the US)
If you pay cash, or other currency; the dealer is required to file a CTR to report the Large cash transaction.
If you trade something for the ferrari, the dealer had to fill out a 1099B. If you take out a loan or pay by check, your banks will record a transaction.
Large transactions in or out of your bank account are covertly reportable in the US behind your back -- your bank is required to report due to the Bank Secrecy Act and forbidden from informing you that they have reported.
If you bring $100,000 into your bank account, or take out a loan for $250k on a car, or you engage in new unusual spending habits, the tax authorities definitely will almost certainly be made aware that you did that.
If someone makes a bunch of profit on Bitcoins, how is Norway going to know if the person doesn't self report?
How they'd do it in the US --- when you cash out your Bitcoins for US Dollars; the exchange or other organization you sell more than $100 Bitcoins to as an individual, has to fill out a 1099B or other 1099 information return, showing the proceeds of the transaction, with what you traded for the money.
In Norway; you may very well be on your honor to report, at least, until the enforcement authority inspects your bank records, or your personal records, after finding suspicious purchases that they can't explain given your reported income