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User: mike260

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  1. Re:The only people they're stopping... on Goodbye, HD Component Video · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In your analogy, there's a mile-long queue of skilled thieves outside your door and they're busting open your locks every 5 seconds with zero effort and no repercussions. I think that in this situation, yes, people *would* tell you to stop forking out for new locks.

    They might also question your policy of strip-searching invited guests before letting them into your house.

  2. Re:News at 11 on Are You Sure SHA-1+Salt Is Enough For Passwords? · · Score: 1

    Basically, not even root should be able to figure out any users password.

    What's to stop root from forcing a password reset and then snarfing the new password before it gets hashed?

  3. Re:Impossible on Kilogram Gets Controversial; Why Not Split the Difference? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think the GP's point was that even if you chopped a sizeable chunk off it, it would still weigh precisely 1kg. It logically follows that the universe's weight, expressed in kg, would suddenly jump upwards by a very large amount.

  4. Re:Oh this is going to be popular... on Sony Planning Serial Keys For PS3 Games? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    PS3 games are already spectacularly inconvenient, often requiring 30 minutes or more of downloading, patching, installing and firmware-updating before letting me actually play the game I just bought. Having to type in a serial via gamepad would be the least of it.

  5. Re:Confused on Apple iPhone 5 To Flaunt New A8 Processor · · Score: 1

    Also:

    The release of iOS 4.3 beta for developers has revealed updates to gesture-based navigation, AirPlay and Personal Hot Spot in the next edition of iPad and iPhone.

    No, it applies to current iPads and iPhones.

    However, not all changes are UI-related; it is reported that Apple is due to add an ARM Cortex A8 processor to its iPhone 5.

    What has the iOS beta got to do with the next iPhone's CPU?

    I know that chronically uninformed articles are par for the course on Slashdot, but not understanding the difference between software and hardware is a new one.

  6. Confused on Apple iPhone 5 To Flaunt New A8 Processor · · Score: 4, Informative

    'A4' is Apple's name for a chip based on ARMs Cortex A8 architecture. The next chip will probably be called 'A5', and will probably be based on Cortex A9. A4/A5 and A8/A9 are two seperate nomenclatures.

    Also, to 'flaunt' means to

    display something ostentatiously, esp. in order to provoke envy or admiration

    This is not something an inanimate object like a phone can do.

  7. Re:Overthinking it on A Finnish-Chinese Connection For Stuxnet? · · Score: 2

    The Military Option: Bushehr is not Osirak:

    the GOI does not know where all of the targets are located

    potential targets are well dispersed throughout the country, with several located in built-up civilian areas

    any attack on Bushehr would likely result in Russian casualties and endanger Moscow's cooperation

  8. Re:Overthinking it on A Finnish-Chinese Connection For Stuxnet? · · Score: 1

    IMHO this also sends a message: "We've been peeing in your centrifuges for months without even having to leave our offices."
    Mossad already had the ninja assassin rep, now they get to be ninja assassin hackers.

  9. Re:Overthinking it on A Finnish-Chinese Connection For Stuxnet? · · Score: 1

    You can only kill the scientists and bomb the facilities you know about; a virus can go anywhere.

  10. Re:Rather basic question on A Finnish-Chinese Connection For Stuxnet? · · Score: 2

    Nope, seems about right. But you can reinfect a PC by inserting an infected USB key and viewing the contents, so until you know the infection-vectors (which took a while to discover) you'd have difficulty staying clean.

    Stuxnet was made to stay undetected as long as possible - it only mucks about with attached drives (rapidly spinning them up and down) at long intervals and for short periods. So instead of a room full of exploding centrifuges, you get an abnormally high failure-rate. It even records sensor data from normal operation and replays it while it's messing with the drives to hide itself from anyone monitoring it.

  11. Overthinking it on A Finnish-Chinese Connection For Stuxnet? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Israel is (by far) the most nervous about Iran's nuclear program, and already had one pre-emptive attack on a nuclear plant under it's belt that (in their worldview) was a resounding success and is a point of national pride.
    So one of the drives targeted by stuxnet is manufactured in China...I hate to state the obvious, but what isn't?

  12. Re:adjustments on String Theory Tested, Fails Black Hole Predictions · · Score: 1

    You observe, hypothesise, test, and then refine the hypothesis. Sometimes it takes a lot of testing before you find a case where the hypothesis makes predictions that are wrong (e.g. Newtonian gravity)

    ...and other times, the very first prediction that you test yields an instant fail.

  13. Re:Recycling is wrong... on JBI's Plastic To Oil Gets Operating Permit · · Score: 1

    Huh?

  14. Re:Back to the Future? on JBI's Plastic To Oil Gets Operating Permit · · Score: 2

    IIRC, he put the bottle into a fusion-reactor along with some banana-peels, then the car flew away. You might be cherry-picking your facts a little here...

  15. Re:Recycling is wrong... on JBI's Plastic To Oil Gets Operating Permit · · Score: 0

    Try Greece. I frequently get into arguments with shopkeepers who insist on putting my purchase in a plastic bag, no matter how hard I try to talk them out of it. Ugh.

  16. Re:Offensive on Quark-Gluon Plasma Observed At LHC · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    They wouldn't have said that about a grandfather.

    Because 'grandmother' makes more sense, given your generation's gender-gap in science and engineering. As a feminist engineer I'm sure this isn't news to you, right?

  17. Re:iOS can't play Flash videos on Flash Comes To the iPhone Via App · · Score: 1

    Read the summary, you say? Okaaay:

    While the HTML5 and Flash standard debate rages, Apple, a major promoter of HTML5, has allowed its iOS devices to run Flash videos.

    The device does not 'run' Flash videos - it renders HTML5 video served up over the web just like a bajillion other apps.

    Apple has given approval to an app developed by Skyfire that translates Flash code into HTML5.

    That would make the app an interpreter, which would be (a) highly impractical, (b) grounds for rejection by Apple and (c) irrelevant to the task of playing video. It's not the app but an external server that transcodes the video-stream, which is in any case not the same as "translating Flash code".

    [...] the Skyfire app downloads the Flash video on Skyfire's server [...]

    The app does not download the Flash video; it visits a website that downloads and transcodes the requested video. The app downloads only HTML5 video.

    The app is embedded in the Safari browser.

    That would make the app a browser plugin, which is very unlikely. Presumably the reverse is true (a Safari control embedded in the app).

    Seems to me that the GP is both correct and on-topic, whereas the summary that you recommend reading is...questionable.

  18. Re:Seriously? on Drupal 7 · · Score: 1

    When you read an article that assumes knowledge of something you've never heard of, why not treat it as a prompt to go learn something new, rather than a personal affront?

  19. Re:Wow! on Countries Considering Circumlunar Flight From ISS · · Score: 1

    Do you really see trillions of dollars of benefits from such a thing?

    It's not like the money would be created or destroyed either way. More interesting to think of the resources that would be expended - lots of brainpower, lots of gear, a bit of fuel and a few lives risked.

  20. Obvious question first on Grad Student Looking To Contribute To Open Source · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You did try googling for, say, 'open source c++ numerical library' right?
    I ask because that yields a fair few that welcome contributions; maybe if you told us what your issues with them are then that would help us find you some alternatives.

  21. You Got Turing'd on The Encryption Pioneer Who Was Written Out of History · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dude does groundbreaking work, work gets suppressed by British government for reasons of national security, dude gets screwed.
    At least this guy didn't then get force-fed oestrogen by the government until he killed himself, which is something I suppose.

  22. Re:What would be the issues with a hardware versio on HDCP Encryption/Decryption Code Released · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are already bootleg hardware HDCP strippers on the market. It used to be possible to shut down these devices by revoking their keys, but that's now gone out the window with the master-key leak. Expect the next generation of devices to let you upload new keys to them, or maybe generate new keys themselves.

    Software decryption is kinda interesting but you're right, hardware is where it's at.

  23. Re:nothing new on AMD One-Ups Intel With Cheap Desktop Chips · · Score: 1

    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'

    search_results
    +----------------+
    good

    1 row in set (0.00 sec)

  24. Super Principia Bros. on Super Principia Mathematica · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, but Russell and Whitehead would make for a better videogame.

    "Dear Bertrand, please come to the castle. I've baked an incompleteness theorem for you. Princess Godel"

  25. Re:Silly and presumptuous name... on Super Principia Mathematica · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's-a me! A-Bertrand Russell!