I believe that there is a TrueCrypt mode for starting the data portion of the TrueCrypt partition in RAW after some specified number of bytes. This allows you to put some files on a drive and hide your encrypted partition after it.
Just put some goatse on there to keep the snoopers from digging too deep.
You know that someone is at their first computer conference when they un-velcro their bag in the middle of a panel. Zips, magnetic clasps, or straps, people. That, or they're just an ass.
Double checking is pretty straightforward for the neurotic among us. First, you check for something. Then, you check again. I inventory my laptop bag before a trip, then I take it downstairs, put it by the door, and do a second, less complete, inventory before I walk out. Keys, thumb-drives, headphones, ear-plugs, glasses, iLoks, pens, business cards, passport.
I'll know if the laptop has been left out when I lift the bag.
There was a time when *every* cellphone was black (shortly after *every* cellphone was grey), and glass is, frankly, the best material for capacitive touch screens (even though I hate glossy screens).
So, you have a material that is manufactured as a sheet on a touch-screen that needs to have a flush bezel to avoid having untouchable edges. Once it's strong enough, it makes an awful lot of sense to use that material for the front of the device. We see this in cars, TVs, ATMs, computers, and microwaves ovens. Add sandwich and bucket-back construction (TVs, laptops for a number of years, hard drive cases, and some toys), and you've got a formula for fairly common construction cues.
Black? Rounded off corners? Like TVs and, oh, things that don't want to suck to put in your pocket or bag?
A thumb-width bezel? I should get a design patent on a closed-hand-diameter hammer-handle.
Is the Kindle 3 as a counter example a joke? It's different technology, and black would show off the lack of depth in e-ink (though e-ink *kicks ass* for reading). A Kindle Fire would be a far better comparison. It's black, has a glass front, is a rectangle, and has rounded corners. It's not a matter of whether or not Samsung is standing on the shoulders of a design giant (Ive and his crew are great). It's a matter of whether there is a risk of confusion in the marketplace. Unless we're looking to set far broader separation between products in this market than we are other markets (TVs, vacuum cleaners, appliances, laptops, and basketballs are all visible to me right now), the Samsung devices just don't hit the standard.
Did Samsung wimp out and follow instead of blazing a new path with their devices? Sure they did. So did Hyundai. Apple doesn't get to dictate the rules by which other device makers design their devices, provided that there isn't undue confusion in the marketplace. Either way, though, these claims just don't look good. Regardless of your position on this suit, this just doesn't feel like great lawyering on Apple's part.
First off, the Dyson Air Multiplier sucks. It generates buckets of high-frequency noise for the airflow it provides. Get a Vornado. Secondly, it was invented thirty years ago: link.
The rest of the stuff? I have no idea what you're saying. Can one tell the difference from a distance between a Wolf range and a Viking? A Viking and an American Range? Are the red knobs of a Wolf, the squared top of an American range, or the extensions of the knobs of a Bertazzoni enough to tip casual viewers off? No. In the same way that subtle differences between basic jeans don't broadcast branding, an industrial-looking stainless steel range is an industrial-looking stainless steel range to casual viewers.
I have no doubt that plenty of aunts, uncles, grandmas, and little brothers will mistake the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet for the iPad this season. Why? Because the iPad has become the Kleenex of tablets. Still, the aggregate of "thin, rectangular, glass-fronted, black, and with grabbable edges" is dictated by the currently available technology (glass front), ergonomic requirements (thin, rectangular, grabbable), and current style trends (we're rocking black right now... Here's hoping we never go back to silver fronts for anything, ever). Could Samsung pull a Motorola and make their devices more noisy, complicated, and ugly? Hey, jeans had rubber knee-patches in the '90s, so, yeah, sure. Should everyone be required to gimp their devices because Apple planted a flag on minimal? I certainly hope not.
I have to wonder if this does more harm than good for Apple's case. It points out the absolute absurdity of how far they are reaching. Not have a flat front? Not be rectangular? Not use black?
I know that any of these would have significantly distinguished these products from Apple''s, but so too does the "Samsung" emblazoned on the device. Looking at the front with the screen off, sure, my iPod touch might look a bit like a Samsung device. From 10 feet, it also looks like my wallet. This isn't quite as forehead slapping as Samsung's crack legal team not being able to tell the difference between a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and an iPad, but it's pretty close.
That, or these attorneys have an amazing sense of humor.
And, yes, I agree. Metrics and "objective measurement" are a plague on business, effectively treating all employees as inherently untrustworthy while incentivizing grossly degenerate gaming of the system. Knowing, recognizing, and cultivating trusted, intuitively competent people cannot be replaced by the commoditization of labor via the adoption of metrics. Conversely, reliance completely on "gut feel" is far less effective than inventive intuition combined with empirical evidence.
Solution? Cultivate people who know how to do the job right and know when to override your metrics. Don't rely on the system alone to deduce who is doing well when. Make sure that managers talk openly and regularly with employees 2-3 layers down the hierarchy.
All of this is more effort, so screw it. Let's just make a new process and require every employee to go to training about it.
And these are all of the things that one has to do to remedy the inherent problems of telecommuting. I did it for a few years, and the worst part had to be showing up at the home office and spending the entire day answering questions that people had saved up (instead of emailing me). I'm cool with the social aspect, but don't let work stay stalled because "He'll be here next week..."
My least favorite part of this? Spammy email to remind people you exist. It sucks to do it, but it's entirely necessary.
I'd tend to agree with this. Try having a manager who clearly checks out (no email responsiveness, no productivity) when working from home. Then, when you're remote, he's assuming that you are goofing off as much as he would.
It can be worth it, and it can work. Emails turn a bit spammy (roping too many people into a conversation), and status reports matter more than they should. Most managers don't know what engineers do, so their only indication that you're doing work is that you are there, preferably for long hours, preferably visibly busy.
Good software engineers are inherently lazy looking. They don't spray out a bunch of lines of code and then busily fix hundreds of bugs. They consider a good plan of attack, write clear, concise code, and fix very few bugs (because they have very few). This is lost on almost all managers in the tech industry.
The DEA reasoning on this is completely absurd. A product with *significant* life-saving (and ass saving) primary uses is held back by an overzealous response to drug-thousandaires buying overpriced iodine in micro-doses to manufacture a drug for which far more critical components are already regulated, and the DEA has the gall to point the finger elsewhere?
That's right, people, we had to take away your freedoms to better protect you from people participating in a black market resultant from our criminalization of a chemical compound. So much has been laid on the altar of the war on drugs. Civil property forfeiture, warrantless-compilation of private actions, televised fried eggs...
I have used Netflix in every context listed there, on players from Samsung and Sony, on XBox 360s, and on PS3s.
So I'm fairly confident on this one. Prior to them adding slow-edge-scroll to the browser-based experience, set-top platforms were well behind Netflix on a computer. Pulling a Harding on the browser version doesn't make the 10-ft versions better.
Have you tried Hulu on a PS3? How about a Blu-Ray player? For the most part, performance can be classified as "cumbersome at best, frustratingly obstinate at worst." The difference in startup and streaming performance is *enormous* when compared to laptop use. To be fair, PC-based playback of Netflix and Hulu is damned-near instant on a line that pulls 60Mbps/40Mbps D/U in real world use. Perhaps I'm spoiled, but even the 360 experience isn't earning any medals from me.
Do I still put these things on while doing the dishes? Sure, which is exactly why I think the Fire will do just fine in the marketplace.
"For a device that is entirely about media consumption, the Fire will live or die depending on its perceived alacrity."
Really? Given that previous Kindles have been relatively slow to turn pages, and that Hulu and Netflix playback on devices like XBox 360s, Blu-Ray players, and PS3s presents a somewhat less-than-seamless experience, are we confident that "good enough" isn't good enough?
Not everyone needs everything to be absolutely smooth and stunningly fast. It's nice, but it may not be worth more than doubling the price. Keep in mind that most Americans (and, really, the worldians) aren't geeks. Delays may be okay.
Will I buy a Fire? Probably not, but I still get that my relatively high standards for devices are relatively high.
I agree. Bringing Lolcats into the discussion indicates that this poster is genuinely aware of what is done with smartphones. This points to a very mature, highly intelligent, considerate, thoughtful person.
You do realize that the number of CPU cores and storage weren't bars set by Apple, right? Lopping off Siri on older handsets (which are perfectly technically capable of running it) is also a bit of a lame thing to do.
That said, if you're in the market for an iPhone these days, you should absolutely get the 4S. Apple will fix the battery issues, so it's a no-brainer.
Most speedometers (dial type) can be read in the peripheral vision. My car has a digital numeric speedo, so it's likely like your GPS, but really far out of the line of sight. The way my car does it? Complete failure.
Keep in mind that you were the first to be dismissive about someone else's reasoning regarding relaxation of strict speed limits, so just consider mine retributive snark. Most people don't need to spring for a GPS receiver when a speedometer already in their car is fairly decent for measurement, and the general application of speed limit laws reflects this.
That said, do the following: - Make sure it is legal to have the GPS receiver mounted on your windshield where you live. In some areas, this is illegal. I've received a warning. - Try using GPS in a dense city area. - Try out a car with a HUD. Kind of cool. - See what speed your GPS receiver can max out at. I've had one report a speed of over 2300mph, in a car, which I think is badass.
Personally, I calibrate my speedo with GPS. It lets me know if my car is way off. With more modern cars, this is pretty rare.
But, yeah, I was dicking with you. I don't honestly think that you're a bad driver. Good GPS receivers can make a driver *far* more safe on the road.
As long as you promise to box in the car of your representative to... Oh, that's right, they don't give a shit, as they're all in limos paid for by government contractors.
I'm pretty sure that they ran out of toilet paper and decided to use the constitution a while ago.
I've been to court for a ticket that was bogus. The judge actually walked in and said "anybody here with a speeding ticket? Pay 'em" and walked right back out.
Having driven a couple of hours to get back to this small-town sham, I was fairly disappointed. These days, that's the sort of nonsense I expect.
Speed differentials definitely kill. Static car at a stoplight, moving car at 100mph, for example.
So it makes sense to, perhaps, have a suggested speed that corresponds to the distance that a licensed driver should be expected to see a hazard from.
Additionally, most cars exhibit significant lift at high speed, something many drivers aren't ready for (example: Audi TT pre ass-flap spoiler). Add to this that wind resistance and kinetic energy increase with the square of the speed (affecting fuel economy and crash severity), and it makes sense to *at least* give people some sense of a reasonable speed.
Why? Because we let absolute idiots drive cars.
If we took to training and licensing drivers more comprehensively, possibly requiring that people exhibit the ability to control a car in a skid, I'd be alright with uncorking limits. That said, I have friends who, frankly, probably shouldn't even be licensed here in the states, right now.
Some things drivers in the states don't think about while driving: - Speed-related road noise for nearby homes/businesses. - Quality of road surface, drainage, and impact barriers. - Proximity to problematic intersections with other vehicles, pedestrians. - Natural roadway contour and visibility.
The list goes on and on. These things end up being codified into the speed limit so we can drive like zombies, curse at a number, and honk at idiots in the left lane.
Do I like or want speed limits? Hell no. Do I think that they're most commonly used as a crude tool to generate back-door revenue? Of course.
Still, I understand that there may be legitimate arguments for them.
Remember when France had ludicrously low speed limits that nobody cared about? Good times. I'm waiting for the public of France to wake up and realize that freedom was actually pretty nice.
If they could put a credit card reader on the dash of your car and bill you per mile without people bitching, I bet they would. We let tickets slide because it doesn't necessarily happen to us. Tickets are just a stochastic tax.
While I agree that an old Civic isn't going to cut it in accident safety compared to modern cars, I'd wager that the center of gravity and weight are *significantly* lower than just about any modern car, in its segment or otherwise.
For instance, an 89 Civic CRX is lighter than most new Fiat 500s. An 85 Civic CRX is lighter than a smart ForTwo.
Cars have gotten heavier and taller in the last 20 years. That said, having been hit head-on in a modern Civic (and having walked away), I appreciate advances in passenger safety.
Slashdot Mirror
I take a look at a found USB stick. I might be able to identify someone and return their data. I do this on a Linux VM, generally, but...
I believe that there is a TrueCrypt mode for starting the data portion of the TrueCrypt partition in RAW after some specified number of bytes. This allows you to put some files on a drive and hide your encrypted partition after it.
Just put some goatse on there to keep the snoopers from digging too deep.
I think it's reasonable to assume it's likely, which, statistically, has more in common with true than false.
Once we've wandered into statistics on small non-random samples, I think we can say these things comfortably...
You know that someone is at their first computer conference when they un-velcro their bag in the middle of a panel. Zips, magnetic clasps, or straps, people. That, or they're just an ass.
Double checking is pretty straightforward for the neurotic among us. First, you check for something. Then, you check again. I inventory my laptop bag before a trip, then I take it downstairs, put it by the door, and do a second, less complete, inventory before I walk out. Keys, thumb-drives, headphones, ear-plugs, glasses, iLoks, pens, business cards, passport.
I'll know if the laptop has been left out when I lift the bag.
There was a time when *every* cellphone was black (shortly after *every* cellphone was grey), and glass is, frankly, the best material for capacitive touch screens (even though I hate glossy screens).
So, you have a material that is manufactured as a sheet on a touch-screen that needs to have a flush bezel to avoid having untouchable edges. Once it's strong enough, it makes an awful lot of sense to use that material for the front of the device. We see this in cars, TVs, ATMs, computers, and microwaves ovens. Add sandwich and bucket-back construction (TVs, laptops for a number of years, hard drive cases, and some toys), and you've got a formula for fairly common construction cues.
Black? Rounded off corners? Like TVs and, oh, things that don't want to suck to put in your pocket or bag?
A thumb-width bezel? I should get a design patent on a closed-hand-diameter hammer-handle.
Is the Kindle 3 as a counter example a joke? It's different technology, and black would show off the lack of depth in e-ink (though e-ink *kicks ass* for reading). A Kindle Fire would be a far better comparison. It's black, has a glass front, is a rectangle, and has rounded corners. It's not a matter of whether or not Samsung is standing on the shoulders of a design giant (Ive and his crew are great). It's a matter of whether there is a risk of confusion in the marketplace. Unless we're looking to set far broader separation between products in this market than we are other markets (TVs, vacuum cleaners, appliances, laptops, and basketballs are all visible to me right now), the Samsung devices just don't hit the standard.
Did Samsung wimp out and follow instead of blazing a new path with their devices? Sure they did. So did Hyundai. Apple doesn't get to dictate the rules by which other device makers design their devices, provided that there isn't undue confusion in the marketplace. Either way, though, these claims just don't look good. Regardless of your position on this suit, this just doesn't feel like great lawyering on Apple's part.
Guh, what?
First off, the Dyson Air Multiplier sucks. It generates buckets of high-frequency noise for the airflow it provides. Get a Vornado. Secondly, it was invented thirty years ago:
link.
The rest of the stuff? I have no idea what you're saying. Can one tell the difference from a distance between a Wolf range and a Viking? A Viking and an American Range? Are the red knobs of a Wolf, the squared top of an American range, or the extensions of the knobs of a Bertazzoni enough to tip casual viewers off? No. In the same way that subtle differences between basic jeans don't broadcast branding, an industrial-looking stainless steel range is an industrial-looking stainless steel range to casual viewers.
I have no doubt that plenty of aunts, uncles, grandmas, and little brothers will mistake the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet for the iPad this season. Why? Because the iPad has become the Kleenex of tablets. Still, the aggregate of "thin, rectangular, glass-fronted, black, and with grabbable edges" is dictated by the currently available technology (glass front), ergonomic requirements (thin, rectangular, grabbable), and current style trends (we're rocking black right now... Here's hoping we never go back to silver fronts for anything, ever). Could Samsung pull a Motorola and make their devices more noisy, complicated, and ugly? Hey, jeans had rubber knee-patches in the '90s, so, yeah, sure. Should everyone be required to gimp their devices because Apple planted a flag on minimal? I certainly hope not.
I have to wonder if this does more harm than good for Apple's case. It points out the absolute absurdity of how far they are reaching. Not have a flat front? Not be rectangular? Not use black?
I know that any of these would have significantly distinguished these products from Apple''s, but so too does the "Samsung" emblazoned on the device. Looking at the front with the screen off, sure, my iPod touch might look a bit like a Samsung device. From 10 feet, it also looks like my wallet. This isn't quite as forehead slapping as Samsung's crack legal team not being able to tell the difference between a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and an iPad, but it's pretty close.
That, or these attorneys have an amazing sense of humor.
So, pretty much this.
And, yes, I agree. Metrics and "objective measurement" are a plague on business, effectively treating all employees as inherently untrustworthy while incentivizing grossly degenerate gaming of the system. Knowing, recognizing, and cultivating trusted, intuitively competent people cannot be replaced by the commoditization of labor via the adoption of metrics. Conversely, reliance completely on "gut feel" is far less effective than inventive intuition combined with empirical evidence.
Solution? Cultivate people who know how to do the job right and know when to override your metrics. Don't rely on the system alone to deduce who is doing well when. Make sure that managers talk openly and regularly with employees 2-3 layers down the hierarchy.
All of this is more effort, so screw it. Let's just make a new process and require every employee to go to training about it.
Hey, that's what all the guys down at the I-80 truck stop showers have been telling her, too!
Too soon?
And these are all of the things that one has to do to remedy the inherent problems of telecommuting. I did it for a few years, and the worst part had to be showing up at the home office and spending the entire day answering questions that people had saved up (instead of emailing me). I'm cool with the social aspect, but don't let work stay stalled because "He'll be here next week..."
My least favorite part of this? Spammy email to remind people you exist. It sucks to do it, but it's entirely necessary.
I'd tend to agree with this. Try having a manager who clearly checks out (no email responsiveness, no productivity) when working from home. Then, when you're remote, he's assuming that you are goofing off as much as he would.
It can be worth it, and it can work. Emails turn a bit spammy (roping too many people into a conversation), and status reports matter more than they should. Most managers don't know what engineers do, so their only indication that you're doing work is that you are there, preferably for long hours, preferably visibly busy.
Good software engineers are inherently lazy looking. They don't spray out a bunch of lines of code and then busily fix hundreds of bugs. They consider a good plan of attack, write clear, concise code, and fix very few bugs (because they have very few). This is lost on almost all managers in the tech industry.
This goes double when working remote.
The DEA reasoning on this is completely absurd. A product with *significant* life-saving (and ass saving) primary uses is held back by an overzealous response to drug-thousandaires buying overpriced iodine in micro-doses to manufacture a drug for which far more critical components are already regulated, and the DEA has the gall to point the finger elsewhere?
That's right, people, we had to take away your freedoms to better protect you from people participating in a black market resultant from our criminalization of a chemical compound. So much has been laid on the altar of the war on drugs. Civil property forfeiture, warrantless-compilation of private actions, televised fried eggs...
Will we ever claw back form this?
I have used Netflix in every context listed there, on players from Samsung and Sony, on XBox 360s, and on PS3s.
So I'm fairly confident on this one. Prior to them adding slow-edge-scroll to the browser-based experience, set-top platforms were well behind Netflix on a computer. Pulling a Harding on the browser version doesn't make the 10-ft versions better.
Have you tried Hulu on a PS3? How about a Blu-Ray player? For the most part, performance can be classified as "cumbersome at best, frustratingly obstinate at worst." The difference in startup and streaming performance is *enormous* when compared to laptop use. To be fair, PC-based playback of Netflix and Hulu is damned-near instant on a line that pulls 60Mbps/40Mbps D/U in real world use. Perhaps I'm spoiled, but even the 360 experience isn't earning any medals from me.
Do I still put these things on while doing the dishes? Sure, which is exactly why I think the Fire will do just fine in the marketplace.
"For a device that is entirely about media consumption, the Fire will live or die depending on its perceived alacrity."
Really? Given that previous Kindles have been relatively slow to turn pages, and that Hulu and Netflix playback on devices like XBox 360s, Blu-Ray players, and PS3s presents a somewhat less-than-seamless experience, are we confident that "good enough" isn't good enough?
Not everyone needs everything to be absolutely smooth and stunningly fast. It's nice, but it may not be worth more than doubling the price. Keep in mind that most Americans (and, really, the worldians) aren't geeks. Delays may be okay.
Will I buy a Fire? Probably not, but I still get that my relatively high standards for devices are relatively high.
I agree. Bringing Lolcats into the discussion indicates that this poster is genuinely aware of what is done with smartphones. This points to a very mature, highly intelligent, considerate, thoughtful person.
You do realize that the number of CPU cores and storage weren't bars set by Apple, right? Lopping off Siri on older handsets (which are perfectly technically capable of running it) is also a bit of a lame thing to do.
That said, if you're in the market for an iPhone these days, you should absolutely get the 4S. Apple will fix the battery issues, so it's a no-brainer.
Most speedometers (dial type) can be read in the peripheral vision. My car has a digital numeric speedo, so it's likely like your GPS, but really far out of the line of sight. The way my car does it? Complete failure.
Keep in mind that you were the first to be dismissive about someone else's reasoning regarding relaxation of strict speed limits, so just consider mine retributive snark. Most people don't need to spring for a GPS receiver when a speedometer already in their car is fairly decent for measurement, and the general application of speed limit laws reflects this.
That said, do the following:
- Make sure it is legal to have the GPS receiver mounted on your windshield where you live. In some areas, this is illegal. I've received a warning.
- Try using GPS in a dense city area.
- Try out a car with a HUD. Kind of cool.
- See what speed your GPS receiver can max out at. I've had one report a speed of over 2300mph, in a car, which I think is badass.
Personally, I calibrate my speedo with GPS. It lets me know if my car is way off. With more modern cars, this is pretty rare.
But, yeah, I was dicking with you. I don't honestly think that you're a bad driver. Good GPS receivers can make a driver *far* more safe on the road.
As long as you promise to box in the car of your representative to... Oh, that's right, they don't give a shit, as they're all in limos paid for by government contractors.
Well, hey, those are the breaks.
I'll feel safer riding with someone who glances at their speedometer and watches the road than I will riding with you fiddling with your GPS.
Oh, and expect to pay extra to fight your ticket in court.
Those "Court fees" would make you think that courthouse employees should be getting paid $150/hour. Oddly, this is not the case.
I'm pretty sure that they ran out of toilet paper and decided to use the constitution a while ago.
I've been to court for a ticket that was bogus. The judge actually walked in and said "anybody here with a speeding ticket? Pay 'em" and walked right back out.
Having driven a couple of hours to get back to this small-town sham, I was fairly disappointed. These days, that's the sort of nonsense I expect.
Speed differentials definitely kill. Static car at a stoplight, moving car at 100mph, for example.
So it makes sense to, perhaps, have a suggested speed that corresponds to the distance that a licensed driver should be expected to see a hazard from.
Additionally, most cars exhibit significant lift at high speed, something many drivers aren't ready for (example: Audi TT pre ass-flap spoiler). Add to this that wind resistance and kinetic energy increase with the square of the speed (affecting fuel economy and crash severity), and it makes sense to *at least* give people some sense of a reasonable speed.
Why? Because we let absolute idiots drive cars.
If we took to training and licensing drivers more comprehensively, possibly requiring that people exhibit the ability to control a car in a skid, I'd be alright with uncorking limits. That said, I have friends who, frankly, probably shouldn't even be licensed here in the states, right now.
Some things drivers in the states don't think about while driving:
- Speed-related road noise for nearby homes/businesses.
- Quality of road surface, drainage, and impact barriers.
- Proximity to problematic intersections with other vehicles, pedestrians.
- Natural roadway contour and visibility.
The list goes on and on. These things end up being codified into the speed limit so we can drive like zombies, curse at a number, and honk at idiots in the left lane.
Do I like or want speed limits? Hell no. Do I think that they're most commonly used as a crude tool to generate back-door revenue? Of course.
Still, I understand that there may be legitimate arguments for them.
Remember when France had ludicrously low speed limits that nobody cared about? Good times. I'm waiting for the public of France to wake up and realize that freedom was actually pretty nice.
If they could put a credit card reader on the dash of your car and bill you per mile without people bitching, I bet they would. We let tickets slide because it doesn't necessarily happen to us. Tickets are just a stochastic tax.
While I agree that an old Civic isn't going to cut it in accident safety compared to modern cars, I'd wager that the center of gravity and weight are *significantly* lower than just about any modern car, in its segment or otherwise.
For instance, an 89 Civic CRX is lighter than most new Fiat 500s. An 85 Civic CRX is lighter than a smart ForTwo.
Cars have gotten heavier and taller in the last 20 years. That said, having been hit head-on in a modern Civic (and having walked away), I appreciate advances in passenger safety.