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User: blueg3

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  1. Re:logic bombs on a timer on Searching For Backdoors From Rogue IT Staff · · Score: 1

    Be even easier to modify the class file's timestamp. Wait a couple seconds, then touch it.

    But yeah, people are generally caught by stupid things, because covering all of your tracks turns out to be trickier than it sounds.

  2. Re:Windows has great anti-malware tech on Rustock Botnet Responsible For 40% of Spam · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You can fairly easily set it up so that when machines reboot, all changes are lost. It's convenient for a lot of applications.

  3. Re:Oh PAH-LEEEZE on Rustock Botnet Responsible For 40% of Spam · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There's more than enough threat for Symantic etc. to deal with one and still have a viable business model.

    And you're right, white hats don't hack other people's machines, which is illegal, just because it seems like a convenient solution to a problem. That's basically how that works.

  4. Re:You people ... on 'Leap Seconds' May Be Eliminated From UTC · · Score: 1

    TAI will be off by an hour in something like 18,000 years.

  5. Re:By my calculations.... on Los Angeles Unveils $578 Million Public School · · Score: 1

    That depends, are you going to Harvard for undergrad, too, or just the grad degree? What kind of Master's program?

    Not counting other expenses (eating and sleeping), ballpark Ivy League schools at $30-35k/yr. Master's students usually have to pay, doctoral students don't (depending).

    So not counting noneducational costs, undergrad+master's at Harvard is probably $180-200k.

  6. Re:If your food if full of preservatives ... on Germany To Roll Out ID Cards With Embedded RFID · · Score: 1

    What kind of crazy ginned this up? The FDA doesn't mandate the use of preservatives. Fats aren't toxic, though they are insoluble in water.

  7. Re:Its callled a "one-time" page on 1978 Cryptosystem Resists Quantum Attack · · Score: 1

    And a secure system for transmitting this pad from the sender to the receiver.

  8. Re:Convenient on Linux X.org Critical Security Flaw Silently Patched · · Score: 0, Troll

    Xorg is part of the Linux kernel?

  9. Re:BBC talking about changing language is irony on How the Internet Is Changing Language · · Score: 1

    Both American and British English dictionaries (e.g., Oxford) use "al-buh-niz-uhm" (or replace the "uh" in "buh" with a schwa). The Mirriam-Webster Medical Dictionary gives the long-I version as an alternate pronunciation.

  10. Re:BBC talking about changing language is irony on How the Internet Is Changing Language · · Score: 1

    Neither of those pronunciations of "albinism" is correct. It's al-buh-niz-uhm. There are certainly correct pronunciations of "Syracuse" and "Osaka" -- ask people who live there.

    Both "rowt" and "root" are common in the US.

  11. Re:No. on How the Internet Is Changing Language · · Score: 1

    That depends on if you differentiate between slang and colloquialism. But slang doesn't necessarily have to be a shibboleth, just more common to a particular social group.

  12. Re:College Textbook Prices on Sell Someone Else's Book On Lulu! · · Score: 1

    It's also easy if that professor is an expert in the field, such that his textbook is standard nationwide.

    For example, using Ashcroft and Mermin when Mermin is teaching your class.

    The best deal is actually when the professor is developing his own textbook and you get a free preprint version (albeit as PDF).

  13. Re:I think it does matter on Why Software Patents Are a Joke — Literally · · Score: 1

    The time it takes to produce all those different combinations isn't the half of it. You have to weed out the ones that are worthwhile from the ones that aren't. Since you set of possible combinations includes, by definition, every possible work of English, there's no simple metric for "keep" versus "discard". In order to have a copy of, say, Harry Potter, you'd need to first *find* the copy of Harry Potter. If you do that by, say, comparing your randomly-generated output with the text of Harry Potter, it's no longer an independently-produced work; you used the text of Harry Potter in order to produce your copy.

  14. Re:Let me get this straight... on Convicted NY Drunk Drivers Need Ignition Interlocks · · Score: 1

    There are a number of ways you could implement it without killing power to the car. Since this only affects people on probation, they probably have to check in monthly anyway. As long as the device records that the command was ignored and it's checked by someone, there's a pretty good incentive to follow its instructions.

  15. Re:Browsers Interact Directly with Hardware? on New Sandbox Framework For Chromium Released · · Score: 1

    Ever since that pesky von Neumann fellow, all any computer has done is work with data.

  16. Re:I guess I'm stupid, too. on US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign · · Score: 1

    TFA is actually quoting the researcher talking about the problem. They didn't show TFA to students to see if they could solve the problems.

    Fortunately, there's a video associated with TFA that actually shows examples of the problems. They use underlined blank spaces.

    So nobody was misusing parentheses except the author of the article.

  17. Re:I guess I'm stupid, too. on US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign · · Score: 1

    You didn't use variables in math problems, much less have an opinion on the symbol to use for a variable, before you learned algebra.

  18. Re:american fuel prices on The Fuel Cost of Obesity · · Score: 1

    If you choose to have that sort of transportation policy, then don't complain about the high cost of fuel.

  19. Re:american fuel prices on The Fuel Cost of Obesity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That'd be because you tax the hell out of it.

  20. Re:Reality Check on The Fuel Cost of Obesity · · Score: 1

    All of which are laughable compared to consolidating trips (or anything else that results in driving less), carpooling, and preferring to buy a more fuel-efficient car.

  21. Re:Lets do a little math ... on The Fuel Cost of Obesity · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, you're talking about wind resistance, which is independent of the mass of the object -- only dependent on speed, shape, and air characteristics. When cruising, your fuel consumption is dominated by this (unless you're hauling a heavy load up an incline).

    The mass-dependent fuel consumption is going to be primarily in acceleration (and hills), so the dependence of fuel economy on weight depends on driving habits.

    Of course, fuel economy depends much more strongly on driving habits than it does on weight. For that matter, it also depends on strongly on engine characteristics and vehicle shape and size.

    If you really want to be snarky, you could probably claim that the additional fuel needed to haul around an obese person is more than offset by the fact that they don't drive to the gym.

  22. Re:I guess I'm stupid, too. on US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign · · Score: 1

    They're talking about the pre-algebra level. Hence, standard notation for people beyond pre-algebra wouldn't be a great choice.

  23. Re:I guess I'm stupid, too. on US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign · · Score: 5, Informative

    The actual notation used in math questions and textbooks is a blank space (e.g., an underlined blank space). The parenthesis are a poor attempt and rendering that in text.

  24. Re:Confusing symbols on US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you watch the video, they have pictures of the math questions, which makes things a lot clearer. The parentheses are TFA's way of trying to draw a blank space. In the original questions, it's an underlined blank space (so ___ would have been a better choice) -- the same sort of underlined blank space provided in grade school where they want you to fill in the answer. In mathematics classes before algebra, when they're trying to introduce you to algebraic concepts, it's common to use blank spaces for "figure out what goes in this space and write it", rather than writing an "x" and saying "solve for x", which would use a concept the students haven't yet been taught.

  25. Re:lighter fluid. on Lasers Approach Their Ultimate Intensity Limit · · Score: 1

    You're measuring energy and calling it mass because they're the same. Always, when you measure mass, you're actually measuring energy in many forms at once.