If these companies achieve those long-awaited, and sometimes long-delayed, major milestones, it will go far to erase any lingering doubts that suborbital space tourism is a real market
How does a successful test of a prototype tell you anything about the demand for it? Silicon Valley landfills are filled with successful prototypes of products you've never heard of.
They need someplace to go and something to do up there. Until consumers can spend a weekend in orbit doing entertaining activities, it's hard to imagine many people willing spend six figures (?) on the trip.
(I'm all for commercial space flight, by the way, I just don't see much consumer demand for it.)
Could someone explain how EMV chips work, especially,
1) If every consumer and retailer in the world will be able to utilize them to process purchases, how can we stop people from using the same devices fraudulently? If the answer is that they use a PIN, then why not use the old mag-stripes with a PIN?
2) Is anything stored on them besides payment data, such as other personal data? In addition to a payment mechanism, is it also yet another way to track and collect information about people? Could other data potentially be stored on them?
3) Is wireless necessary or even a good idea? Why not require contact with the credit card machine?
greatest humanitarian stories in history??? Do you remember just how many TENS OF MILLIONS of people died during the communist takeover and resulting purges? Or the famines?
As someone else pointed out, when I wrote "rise" of China, I meant the recent economic growth since 1980.
I agree that the time before that was a disaster, one of the worst in human history. In fact, I find it absurd that China's Communist Party claims credit for the "rise". That's like burning down your own house, building a hut, and claiming credit for real estate development.
I genuinely hope it is successful. The rise of China is one of the great humanitarian stories in history, lifting hundreds of millions from poverty. I expect the people of China to make great contributions to the world.
However, it's still 2013 and China's government is still authoritarian, unaccountable and non-transparent, and the Chinese press is still restricted. If the mission failed, would they admit it, or release some photos anyway? (Could they get away with it? Could other governments or amateurs with telescopes see for themselves?)
Don't miss this tidbit from the NY Times version of this story:
The Pentagonâ(TM)s Special Operations Command in 2006 and 2007 worked with several foreign companies â" including an obscure digital media business based in Prague â" to build games that could be downloaded to mobile phones, according to people involved in the effort. They said the games, which were not identified as creations of the Pentagon, were then used as vehicles for intelligence agencies to collect information about the users.
Hmmm... Android is built on Linux, Chrome uses Webkit, all their services are accessed via any web browser, their server farms are built on open source technology... is there a larger user of open source?
Are the store customers informed about what they are giving up in return for free Internet access (which many already have via their cellular provider)? Do they understand it? (Also, is it personally identifiable information?)
One issue that makes me doubt the 'nobody cares about privacy' argument is that the organizations collecting information, including governments and businesses, are so secretive about it. Some disclose in long agreements that they know nobody reads, but very rarely do they really inform their targets about what they are doing. I wonder why?
The NY Times overlooks the fundamentals of digital news: Their website is still a news-paper website, instead of a news website. It's print newspaper articles copied to the web, rather than news on the web platform.
One problem is their inability to communicate using modern tools (i.e., anything but text). Just about any blogger can communicate by inserting images, audio, or video inline in a post, while the NY Times, with all its resources, seems to be text with an image or other multimedia occasionally stapled onto the top of the page or on a separate page.
Sometimes text is the appropriate tool; sometimes an image, audio, or video is. For example, if someone says something important (or dubious or otherwise extraordinary), rather than transcribe it to text, show a video clip of them saying it (i.e., Here is Hilary Clinton's response: ) Then the readers can judge the body language, intonation, etc. for themselves. Another example is their arts reviews, where they describe key visual aspects of a painting, film, or performance -- but in text. Why not use clips or images, inline, as needed? This is the web in 2013, not paper in 1950.
The clear answer seems to be the universal recipe for obsolescence: That's the way they've always done it. If the NY Times can't compete with anyone with a Wordpress blog, they are way behind the curve.
I'm waiting for the day political organizations engage in astroturfing with concerted efforts to silence critics of political positions they don't like by swamping it with sheer numbers to generate a false consensus.
How do you know it's not happening? Or are you being sarcastic?
RedState, Fox, etc. have lied to me consistently. I don't think it's close-minded to learn from that and disregard them. I think the Huffington Post or Daily Kos are prone to exaggeration and don't rely them either, but there's less outright lying and deceit.
Radio was invented around then too, but the technology and its applications have changed a lot since then. The modern fracking techniques were developed by government funded research in the 80s and given for free to industry. Just look it up; it's easy to learn about.
(Thanks. If you could post a source besides a random PDF (which many people on/. will hesitate to download) and highly partisan, anti-Obamacare RedState, it would help your point and be informative for the rest of us.)
Well the IRS still has the mother lode, the best target.
Agreed, but the IRS's data isn't designed to be available on the public Internet. That doesn't mean it's perfectly secure, but it takes more than a password to access.
OTOH, if the NSA can't protect it's data from rogue insiders... maybe we should assume our tax returns were sold to the highest bidder long ago.
Another thought: Attackers have even softer targets than tax vendors' servers: Consider malware which installs on user computers, looks for connections with tax vendor servers, and captures the data. (Maybe it's simpler to break into a secured server than millions of end-user computers, however.)
Slashdot Mirror
If these companies achieve those long-awaited, and sometimes long-delayed, major milestones, it will go far to erase any lingering doubts that suborbital space tourism is a real market
How does a successful test of a prototype tell you anything about the demand for it? Silicon Valley landfills are filled with successful prototypes of products you've never heard of.
They need someplace to go and something to do up there. Until consumers can spend a weekend in orbit doing entertaining activities, it's hard to imagine many people willing spend six figures (?) on the trip.
(I'm all for commercial space flight, by the way, I just don't see much consumer demand for it.)
With EMV, the customer is liable if the transaction was completed as an EMV transaction.
That's a very big change. 'Our security is so perfect that any fraud must be perpetrated by the user''?
Thanks, that makes sense.
The chip stores the specific cards signing cert and it can't be accessed
Hmmm ... given the amount of money involved, doesn't it seem likely that methods for breaking the security are already known?
Could someone explain how EMV chips work, especially,
1) If every consumer and retailer in the world will be able to utilize them to process purchases, how can we stop people from using the same devices fraudulently? If the answer is that they use a PIN, then why not use the old mag-stripes with a PIN?
2) Is anything stored on them besides payment data, such as other personal data? In addition to a payment mechanism, is it also yet another way to track and collect information about people? Could other data potentially be stored on them?
3) Is wireless necessary or even a good idea? Why not require contact with the credit card machine?
... it was a philosophy final.
Which is incredibly ironic, since those are generally a matter of opinion or history, which means he could likely have passed it in any case
Unlike actual philosophy, which is quite rigorous, apparently any statement can be modded up on Slashdot.
greatest humanitarian stories in history??? Do you remember just how many TENS OF MILLIONS of people died during the communist takeover and resulting purges? Or the famines?
As someone else pointed out, when I wrote "rise" of China, I meant the recent economic growth since 1980.
I agree that the time before that was a disaster, one of the worst in human history. In fact, I find it absurd that China's Communist Party claims credit for the "rise". That's like burning down your own house, building a hut, and claiming credit for real estate development.
I genuinely hope it is successful. The rise of China is one of the great humanitarian stories in history, lifting hundreds of millions from poverty. I expect the people of China to make great contributions to the world.
However, it's still 2013 and China's government is still authoritarian, unaccountable and non-transparent, and the Chinese press is still restricted. If the mission failed, would they admit it, or release some photos anyway? (Could they get away with it? Could other governments or amateurs with telescopes see for themselves?)
The WSJ and the other wall street minions have been saying that since 1990.
Not really since 1990, but for awhile, In every bubble in history the predictions of collapse were wrong every time, except one.
Don't miss this tidbit from the NY Times version of this story:
The Pentagonâ(TM)s Special Operations Command in 2006 and 2007 worked with several foreign companies â" including an obscure digital media business based in Prague â" to build games that could be downloaded to mobile phones, according to people involved in the effort. They said the games, which were not identified as creations of the Pentagon, were then used as vehicles for intelligence agencies to collect information about the users.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html
Posting anonymously for obvious reasons...
They knew what was going on. My grad school was funded by the NSA. I never had clearance, but did visit Ft. Meade a few times ...
You understand the NSA programs, but you think posting as AC will protect you?
Neither is NoScript
There's a beta product that I use; it seems a little buggy when I have to change permissions.
http://noscript.net/nsa/
They heavily suffer from NIH syndrome
Hmmm ... Android is built on Linux, Chrome uses Webkit, all their services are accessed via any web browser, their server farms are built on open source technology ... is there a larger user of open source?
Are the store customers informed about what they are giving up in return for free Internet access (which many already have via their cellular provider)? Do they understand it? (Also, is it personally identifiable information?)
One issue that makes me doubt the 'nobody cares about privacy' argument is that the organizations collecting information, including governments and businesses, are so secretive about it. Some disclose in long agreements that they know nobody reads, but very rarely do they really inform their targets about what they are doing. I wonder why?
WP used codes for formatting that were clear and precise. Word uses both codes and style sheets
Word did not use formatting codes or the same stream-oriented format as WP at all. Word was and is object-oriented.
The Internet is not television. There are times and places where I don't want a lot of uncontrolled noise popping out of my speakers.
I agree, but there's no reason multimedia have to start playing unprompted.
Not inline as needed, as any (relatively capable) blogger would do. It's text with occasional multimedia added at the periphery.
The NY Times overlooks the fundamentals of digital news: Their website is still a news- paper website, instead of a news website. It's print newspaper articles copied to the web, rather than news on the web platform.
One problem is their inability to communicate using modern tools (i.e., anything but text). Just about any blogger can communicate by inserting images, audio, or video inline in a post, while the NY Times, with all its resources, seems to be text with an image or other multimedia occasionally stapled onto the top of the page or on a separate page.
Sometimes text is the appropriate tool; sometimes an image, audio, or video is. For example, if someone says something important (or dubious or otherwise extraordinary), rather than transcribe it to text, show a video clip of them saying it (i.e., Here is Hilary Clinton's response: ) Then the readers can judge the body language, intonation, etc. for themselves. Another example is their arts reviews, where they describe key visual aspects of a painting, film, or performance -- but in text. Why not use clips or images, inline, as needed? This is the web in 2013, not paper in 1950.
The clear answer seems to be the universal recipe for obsolescence: That's the way they've always done it. If the NY Times can't compete with anyone with a Wordpress blog, they are way behind the curve.
Perhaps some network guru can explain: Why wasn't this exploited long ago?
Maybe he's just earning a few bucks:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/11/20/2218252/bp-hired-company-to-troll-users-who-left-critical-comments
I'm waiting for the day political organizations engage in astroturfing with concerted efforts to silence critics of political positions they don't like by swamping it with sheer numbers to generate a false consensus.
How do you know it's not happening? Or are you being sarcastic?
Wouldn't you be surprised if many companies did not do it? Large companies? Politicians? Governments?
How many comments on Slashdot are astroturf?
RedState, Fox, etc. have lied to me consistently. I don't think it's close-minded to learn from that and disregard them. I think the Huffington Post or Daily Kos are prone to exaggeration and don't rely them either, but there's less outright lying and deceit.
Fracking was invented in about 1900
Radio was invented around then too, but the technology and its applications have changed a lot since then. The modern fracking techniques were developed by government funded research in the 80s and given for free to industry. Just look it up; it's easy to learn about.
(Thanks. If you could post a source besides a random PDF (which many people on /. will hesitate to download) and highly partisan, anti-Obamacare RedState, it would help your point and be informative for the rest of us.)
Well the IRS still has the mother lode, the best target.
Agreed, but the IRS's data isn't designed to be available on the public Internet. That doesn't mean it's perfectly secure, but it takes more than a password to access.
OTOH, if the NSA can't protect it's data from rogue insiders ... maybe we should assume our tax returns were sold to the highest bidder long ago.
Another thought: Attackers have even softer targets than tax vendors' servers: Consider malware which installs on user computers, looks for connections with tax vendor servers, and captures the data. (Maybe it's simpler to break into a secured server than millions of end-user computers, however.)