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User: praxis

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Comments · 1,269

  1. Re:Liberal eco freaks on The Rise of Chemophobia In the News · · Score: 1

    You generalize about NYT employees' but deride generalization in general.

  2. Re:Extortion? on Universities Hold Transcripts Hostage Over Loans · · Score: 2

    So you are saying the people that pay back the cost of their eduction did not work for it, but the ones that were given money they didn't have to repay worked for it. Both groups worked for it.

  3. Re:The US Financial Berlin Wall Won't Allow That on FBI: We Need Wiretap-Ready Web Sites — Now · · Score: 3, Informative

    Unless things have changed very recently, the US government allowed you to file a form informing them of the taxes you paid to your resident country and deduct that amount from your US taxes. If you lived in most of the civilised world, that meant you paid more than the US rate anyhow and had a US tax liability of $0.

  4. Re:Just turn off the car? on Mandatory Brake-Override Proposed For All Cars · · Score: 1

    When you get old enough to drive, and try driving a car with essentially no steering (because the power steering pump is no longer providing pressure) and little brakes (ditto for the brake pump)... you'll understand.

    Power steering is completely useless at speeds over 30 km/h and power breaks will get you a good two more firm applications of the breaks before they lack the power to assist. I recommend more driving experience before you abuse others with your faulty theoretical knowledge.

  5. Re:Seems silly on FTC Fines RockYou $250,000 For Storing User Data In Plain Text · · Score: 1

    I would say no, putting sensitive data on a machine that's shared with others is a bad practice no matter how you do it.

  6. Re:Seems silly on FTC Fines RockYou $250,000 For Storing User Data In Plain Text · · Score: 1

    Yes, of course, but that would be a pretty bad design. If some third-party is storing my credentials, I'd rather have to re-authenticate when they plan maintenance than have them store sensitive data unencrypted on disk.

  7. Re:Seems silly on FTC Fines RockYou $250,000 For Storing User Data In Plain Text · · Score: 1

    It wouldn't be all that secure in-memory, but an SQL injection attack won't reveal it. It's marginally more secure. I was merely answering the question about what a potential key to that field in the database would be.

  8. Re:Seems silly on FTC Fines RockYou $250,000 For Storing User Data In Plain Text · · Score: 1

    Under a requirement to pass this password to a third party when "linking accounts" (that is, making requests of the third party on the user's behalf). It could be stored encrypted in the database, but with what key?

    If the user is passing a clear-text password, you could use that as the key for their other passwords. Use your stored hash to validate their password, use their password as the key for their third-party data.

    If the user-agent is passing a hashed password, use a different hash as the key for third-party data. Send both hashes to the server, which uses one for authentication and the other for decryption of the third-party data.

  9. Re:I think this is being blown out of proportion.. on PlayStation 4 'Orbis' Rumors: AMD Hardware, Hostile To Used Games · · Score: 1

    The only problem with this not effecting you is that it very well might. Those stores that you go to six months after release to get a game for $20 are unlikely to survive very long when their biggest revenue producer (i.e. used-game sales) vanishes.

  10. Re:Funny how she went from on What Book Publishers Should Learn From Harry Potter · · Score: 1

    Evil is a social construct that's pretty fluid between time and space. Not sure that just because greed is one of the seven deadly sins, it automatically becomes evil in the here and now. Not even sure that sinners are automatically evil, or that every sin is an evil act.

  11. Re:I don't care about the reasons on Japanese Court Orders Google To Turn Off Auto-Complete Function · · Score: 1

    You should try https://duckduckgo.com/ if you are looking for a search alternative.

  12. Re:Sensational Summary Session? on How To Crash the US Justice System: Demand a Trial · · Score: 1

    You of course have a right to plead guilty up front and take your sentence, what they shouldn't have the right to do is bully you into thinking the sentence you are getting from them is any worse than you would at jury trial.

  13. Re:It's not about the criminal on How To Crash the US Justice System: Demand a Trial · · Score: 1

    No, I didn't ignore it. Read what I wrote again. I do not believe it's an actual benefit and I explained why.

  14. Re:It's not about the criminal on How To Crash the US Justice System: Demand a Trial · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Plea deals have no benefit. A remorseful criminal that pleads guilty have a lot of benefit. A guilty person who pleas into a lighter sentence and has no remorse does not lead to justice being served. An innocent person who fears they might lose despite their innocence and takes a plea deal into any sentence feels let down by the system and does not lead to justice being served. A guilty person who feels remorse and pleads guilty and takes their just sentence is what you're looking for, and those rarely come out of one side using threats and bargains to get them.

  15. Re:Sensational Summary Session? on How To Crash the US Justice System: Demand a Trial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gee, an officer replied to a DV call of a man beating his wife, comes in and sees a woman with a black eye and a dude that smells of whiskey* -- do we really need a jury to decide that one? Or grand theft auto where the perp is caught in the stolen car

    Yes, we do. We have a right to a trial by a jury. Every one of us. That includes stupid criminals. The alternative, where an officer or a lawyer or anyone else that decides a persons fate without due process is ripe for abuse. Really nasty and bad abuse.

  16. Re:It's not about the criminal on How To Crash the US Justice System: Demand a Trial · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So in the case of rape we should just find the accused guilty without a 'pointless' trial rather than permit them the right to have their crimes proven? We're not talking about accused that are going to plead guilty on their own free will, we're talking about accused that are being strong armed into a guilty plea, innocent or not, because it's cheaper.

  17. Re:So what is your suggestion then? on Proposed Video Copy Protection Scheme For HTML5 Raises W3C Ire · · Score: 1

    That's not showing that downloading is illegal.

  18. Re:So what is your suggestion then? on Proposed Video Copy Protection Scheme For HTML5 Raises W3C Ire · · Score: 1

    I fail to see how receiving an encrypted stream, decrypting it, then drawing the decrypted frames to a framebuffer, possibly re-encrypting them before they hit the HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort port, constitutes "giving control of [your] computer to somebody else."

    It doesn't until they get into hardware being made to support such things in ways to preclude you making modifications to your own hardware and software because they fear their system is breakable. That's the path they are on now and the sooner we take a stand against it the better.

  19. Re:Am I the first to call BS? on How Companies Learn Your Secrets · · Score: 1

    Did you suppose that a teenager who hasn't even graduated high school yet is in a good position to take on the full responsibility of parenting?

    That depends on the person. While you are perfectly fine making assumptions about this particular individual, I ask you to consider that perhaps you don't know this individual and not everyone conforms to your generalizations. I knew women in my high school that were perfectly capable in raising children, but I also recognize that it's not the norm.

    Have you seen the statistics for children (especially boys) who are raised by such people?

    It's not clear to me who you mean by 'such people'. Do you mean fathers that would do what the father in the anecdote did? Do you mean people like me that recognize that not everyone conforms to my worldview and it's sort of arrogant to assume everyone does? Remember, you don't know this girl like you might know your daughter(s), if any.

    Do you think that's the ideal environment for the child?

    That would depend on the child.

    Or do you think she just wanted to get her rocks off and didn't consider pregnancy?

    I don't know her and I'm not comfortable assuming I know her motivations due to statistics. That gets into really scary territory.

    Oh, and a responsible father would think of these things even if the mother didn't. This isn't a responsible father. This is a horny teenager who wanted to get his rocks off too. It's so bleedin' obvious, it's as though none of you were ever in high school...

    You are saying that her father is a horny teenager?! I don't understand that logic, sorry. I've been to high school and there were all sorts of people there, from the irresponsible horny teenager to the multi-millionaire self-made business-women at 17.

    Other than this phony sense of "I'm offended by your certainty!" there is no good reason I should have to explain this.

    I am offended by your certainty because that's the kind of reasoning that says "well, she's Asian, she's 17, she lives in Burbank, she drives a BMW, hence she is X, Y, and Z for certain because statistically that's most likely". Let people be themselves, not a statistic.

    If you really, really love your children, then you prepare as best as you can to provide them a quality upbringing. This person could do better, if only it were important enough to her.

    I don't have any children.

  20. I overlooked in my preview that Slashdot ate the less-than sign before the '10%'. I meant of course 'down to < 10%'.

  21. Just look out for those that will automate generation of junk low-priority issues to get that percent of high-priority issues down to 10% so they can file their high-priority issue.

  22. Re:Am I the first to call BS? on How Companies Learn Your Secrets · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I meant Artraze not apatheon.

  23. Re:Am I the first to call BS? on How Companies Learn Your Secrets · · Score: 1

    You make quite a few assumptions.

    1) How do you know she's decided to be a slut?
    2) How do you know she's interested in higher education?
    3) How do you know she's career-minded?
    4) How do you know she's selected the father irresponsibly?

    Let people live their lives how they want to. If you are willing to ascribe names like slut and assume irresponsibility to a complete stranger over the internet, I wonder what sort of reactions you would have to your own children. I think you considered the same angle as apatheon, only from the side of the father rather than the daughter who didn't feel comfortable sharing her life decisions with her controlling parent.

  24. Re:It's all the customers' fault... on AT&T On Data Throttling: Blame Yourselves · · Score: 1

    I am not. I was grandfathered in a while back and yes my contract ended, but I renewed it to get the 4S. I still have my grandfathered unlimited plan, but a two-year contract.

  25. Re:Tradecraft on Anonymous Posts Audio of Intercepted FBI Conference Call · · Score: 1

    Not sure if you meant singular or plural there, but it should be either adversaries' or adversary's.