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User: Rosco+P.+Coltrane

Rosco+P.+Coltrane's activity in the archive.

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  1. Re:In other words on Planes Can Be Hacked Via Inflight Wi-fi, Says Researcher · · Score: 0

    Nah, don't worry about it. It's just some "security expert" going all dramatic on some minor vulnerability he found, to plaster his name on the front page. Anything talking of airplanes, hacking, hijacking, plays the terrorism bullshit music score, and is a surefire way of attracting media attention.

    No doubt the TSA will very soon jump on the opportunity to invent some new rule to steal - sorry, confiscate - your Wifi-enabled devices at the security checkpoint too...

  2. Re:Makes sense on Ancient Skulls Show Civilization Rose As Testosterone Fell · · Score: 1

    I recall watching a documentary on doping in the cycling world - possibly a documentary on Lance Armstrong, I don't remember - in which they described some cyclist who had taken a course of testosterone as becoming quick-tempered and violent as a result, and in a very short time too. I guess it is true

  3. I'm officially old I guess on Driverless Buses Ruled Out For London, For Now · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I was younger, I worked on speech recogntion problems - well, expert systems and neural networks in general. It was the toughest nut our team had ever been tasked to crack, and we didn't crack it.

    When the man on the street perceives speech recognition to be simple - and coming from a taxi driver, that's more than a little ironic, considering they're essentially human Traveler Salesman Problem solvers - you know technology has overtaken you beyond hope.

    Me, I can't stop being complete blown away by what can be achieved today. Driverless cars are almost a reality everybody can buy, yet I still vividly remember MIT experimental self-driving trucks trying to hold a straight line on a closed circuit at 1 mph!

  4. Re:Being a former drug addict, I think on Researchers Create Virtual Reality 'Parties' To Treat Drug Addiction · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you think you can still be friends with addicts/users, you are mistaken. If they can't get clean, screw them, they will only pull you down.

    I suppose it can work with hard drugs or alcohol - I am not, and never was, a user or either, so I'm no specialist though.

    However, I AM a nicotine addict. I say nicotine and not tobacco, because I have switched to vaping as a risk mitigation strategy (and quit smoking for good as a result).

    One thing I can tell you as a former smoker is, when you're hooked on tobacco, there's no escaping it. You can't avoid being with other smokers, because the smell of cigarette is everywhere. When I quit smoking, it'd only take some random guy who had just smoked outside, walking past me, reeking of cold cigarette smoke, to send me craving like there was no tomorrow.

    Random guys who smell of tobacco are everywhere. You just can't escape the smell. You're constantly bombarded with reminders that, yes, you'd really REALLY want to smoke one just right now.

  5. Victims should sue on "ExamSoft" Bar Exam Software Fails Law Grads · · Score: 1

    Oh wait... they haven't passed the bar yet.

  6. Re:fundementally impossible on Nightfall: Can Kalgash Exist? · · Score: 1

    Have you seen all of nature to affirm without any doubt that something doesn't exist?

    Besides, just because the overwhelming majority of something is a certain way doesn't mean it can't exist in another way. For instance, while all known beaches organize themselves as flat expanses of sand, there is still a probability that a wave comes along and spontaneously forms a sandcastle, albeit a vanishingly small one. Nobody's ever seen it, and probably nobody ever will, but it's possible. That's just math.

  7. As always, Asimov got it right way back then on Nightfall: Can Kalgash Exist? · · Score: 2

    I'd be more surprised if researchers had proved his senary sun system could NOT exist. The man was a visionary.

  8. Re:Slashnerds know the price. I wonder about avera on Privacy Lawsuit Against Google Rests On Battery Drain Claims · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally, I choose to make that trade only with Google. One company has my profile, and in exchange I get many services.

    You can't really be that naive are you? When Google has your data, Google's business partners have it too (part or parcel), the law can have it through subpoenas, the NSA... just about everybody.

    Besides, I suspect Google uses the data in ways I don't want it to be used. So even if it was the sole guardian of it, I don't want to give it to them. Not willingly anyway, and as little as possible when I don't have the choice - and people have less and less choice as days go by in the matter.

  9. And today on Apollo 11 Moon Landing Turns 45 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The United States has abandoned its manned space exploration capabilities, relying on another semi-derelict cold-war era launch setup, provided by a country it's on the brink of war with (Russia), preferring to funnel almost unlimited funds to anti-terrorism and Orwellian surveillance programs instead...

    I'm was born during the cold war. Tensions between the US and the USSR weren't ideal by any means, but at least when I was a kid, we looked forward to a bright future of scientific achievements and space exploration. Now all I look forward to is reaching retirement age with some money on the side that's still worth something despite the inflation, hoping that WW3 and the religious crazies don't overwhelm the world before I kick the bucket.

    Sad, sad world...

  10. Re:There's another treatment that stops most T2 on New Treatment Stops Type II Diabetes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What I meant was, you can train yourself to like healthy foods, to the point of craving them. Me, just eating one small burger from McDonald's makes me sick now.

    As for exercising, it make you feel good. It really does. It's a real buzz after an mere half hour of cycling or swimming.

    And then, in the grand scheme of things, when your health is good, you generally feel good too.

    Staying healthy makes you feel good, but it does so in the medium to long run, and it takes a bit of effort to get going. Chocolate provides immediate, short-term and effortless pleasure. But it's not good for you. Don't you think it's worth investing a little effort for a few months to train yourself to enjoy a healthy lifestyle, so that you can feel good all the time afterward?

  11. Re:There's another treatment that stops most T2 on New Treatment Stops Type II Diabetes · · Score: 2

    Too bad healthy food tastes and/or feels like shit and excercise is frustrating, wholly unpleasant and time-consuming :/

    Yet those of use who exercise and eat healthy seem to lead a happier life. With so much frustration and time wasting, it's a strange thing isn't it?

    Maybe you should give it a go some day. You might end up liking your veggies and feeling good exercising...

  12. 184 mph is the fastest train in America? on The Improbable Story of the 184 MPH Jet Train · · Score: 2

    That says something about the state of train travel in the US. That ain't nothing to be proud of: there are trains in Europe and Japan that have been running regular services at higher speeds for a long time.

  13. Re:Plumber on Ask Slashdot: Future-Proof Jobs? · · Score: 1

    You Sir owe me a shirt, as I was sipping my coffee when I read that :)

  14. Just leave my microbiome alone on Your Personal Data Is On Your Phone -- In the Form of Bacteria · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't want to be tracked: I don't want my personal data stored and dissected in Google's servers, I don't want my fingerprints filed in some government agency's database, I don't want my DNA sequenced and recorded anywhere, and I don't want my microbiome analyzed.

    I don't want to, but I have no choice apparently. Anonymity is going the way of the dodos. Fuck I hate this world...

  15. Uuh, wrong question on What Came First, Black Holes Or Galaxies? · · Score: 4, Funny

    I read somewhere that the heavens and the Earth came first.

  16. Re:WTF on Microsoft Takes Down No-IP.com Domains · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does not seem legal.

    It's legal if the law says it is. And when the lawmakers are in bed with Big Business, like they are in the US, anything goes.

  17. Good judge on Microsoft Takes Down No-IP.com Domains · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The best money could buy.

  18. Try him and not Snowden then on Former NSA Chief Warned Against Selling NSA Secrets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Snowden didn't reveal NSA secrets for his personal profit.

  19. Re:Humidity measurement tool? on Sigsense is Making Interchangeable, Modular Sensors (Video) · · Score: 1

    Man this is a fluffy post

    Surely you mean "this is a tactily underloaded post".

  20. Newsflash: Slashdot and PR Newswire have merged on Sigsense is Making Interchangeable, Modular Sensors (Video) · · Score: 1

    The two company will strive to deliver PR rah-rah in a geeky way - or geeky news laced with PR, whichever way you look at it - for the enjoyment of discerning geeky PR rah-rah lovers the world over.

  21. You mean the malware isn't Google Play itself on Malware Posing As Official Google Play Store Evades Most Security Checks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, with the recent dumbing down of fine-grained authorizations when installing apps, it's Google Play itself that feels like a security liability.

  22. What I predict is on 3D Windowing System Developed Using Wayland, Oculus Rift · · Score: 1

    Less productiviy.

    Visually appealing stuff is nice, but the best way to use a word processor or a spreadsheet is still the good old flat desktop with no bells and whistles.

  23. Re:This reminds me of a great Simpsons episode on EU's Top Court May Define Obesity As a Disability · · Score: 1

    An EXTREME case would be when someone is bid-ridden.

    What's that? Too much eBay?

  24. Re:Do you interview this guy every month? on Interviews: Bruce Perens Answers Your Questions · · Score: -1

    Any article/interview from Bruce Perens can be summed up thusly:

    "Bruce Perens, who loves Bruce Perens, thinks that Bruce Perens Bruce Perens Bruce Perens Bruce Perens, and also Bruce Perens. Of course, Bruce Perens also thinks Bruce Perens is so Bruce Perens that Bruce Perens Bruce Perens.

    Signed: Bruce Perens"

    To be fair, the guy is often interesting if you ignore his personality. But he's SO conceited and full of himself, I have a hard time divorcing the message and the messenger.

  25. Re:Hardware sampling rates on The Computer Security Threat From Ultrasonic Networks · · Score: 4, Funny

    The easiest way to eliminate this threat is to lock down hardware sampling rates such that ultrasonic frequencies cannot be reliably reproduced

    Nope. The easiest way to eliminate this threat is to keep a pet bat next to your computer to scramble any ultrasonic transmission.