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User: wonkey_monkey

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  1. Primes on 'Logjam' Vulnerability Threatens Encrypted Connections · · Score: 1

    Breaking the single, most common 1024-bit prime used by web servers

    Well that's silly. They should try using different primes for a start.

  2. Re:Last sentence on Marvel's Female Superheroes Are Gradually Becoming More Super · · Score: 1

    That's his point. The "What's of particular interest..." suggests it's an unusual and unexpected occurence (although the summary doesn't even say it's a girl, the OP seems to have thought it did).

    Seems a bit condescending, why wouldn't a girl be able to do this?

  3. Re:Stupid question: how do you use it? on Yubikey Neo Teardown and Durability Review · · Score: 3, Funny

    So you plug the device into an SSH port

    Are you from TRON?

  4. Re:Quite the opposite on Four Quasars Found Clustered Together Defy Current Cosmological Expectations · · Score: 3, Informative

    100% of galaxies have supermassive black holes near them.

    Not quite.

    http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_...

    So four galaxies around the same age had nearly the same mass by sheer random probability

    That's one possibility. Funny thing about science, though, is that it isn't just going to shrug and say "Eh. Probability." and ignore something interesting.

    "We looked at 1% of the universe and didn't see something like this so it must be impossible" is not valid science.

    No, it's not. But then no-one's saying that.

  5. Re:not the real question on Chris Roberts Is the Least Important Part of the Airplane Hacking Story · · Score: 1

    Nope. She was named, as Jane Doe.

    Which is not her name. Well, it might be, but it almost certainly isn't.

  6. Re:More to the point... on Chris Roberts Is the Least Important Part of the Airplane Hacking Story · · Score: 1

    So you advocate for that police state where anyone arrested is obviously guilty unless they prove otherwise.

    No, I don't, and I've never said he's obviously guilty. I'm not in a court of law. I'm not going to be on the jury. I'm allowed to express my opinion that it's a little bit suspicious that he's taken the opportunity to state it's "out of context" without stating "I didn't do it."

    And they are a people with the knowledge, not the FBI and not Roberts.

    Blowhard or not, I'm pretty sure Roberts is the one who knows better than anyone else whether or not he did this.

  7. More to the point... on Chris Roberts Is the Least Important Part of the Airplane Hacking Story · · Score: 1

    "If he did what he said he did, why is he not in jail?

    Because, contrary to some opinions, America is not yet a police state, and they still like to have silly things like trials.

    And if he didn't do it, why is the FBI saying he did?"

    A better question would be "why isn't he saying he didn't?"

  8. Re:not the real question on Chris Roberts Is the Least Important Part of the Airplane Hacking Story · · Score: 1

    You can't charge someone with having killed "someone" unless you name that someone.

    Eh, I'm pretty sure you can. Here's one such case

    You can't even charge them if you have a name of the murdered, unless you have a time and place named.

    Again, that seems pretty unlikely.

  9. Re:not the real question on Chris Roberts Is the Least Important Part of the Airplane Hacking Story · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Frankly, it's complete bullshit. The systems are completely, physically separate. There is no way to hack the thrust from the in-flight entertainment system because they are not connected to each other.

    What are your qualifications to be able to say so?

    The systems should be separate. There should be no way to hack into avionics. That doesn't necessarily make it so.

    If you really do know, then great, I am more informed than I was previously was.

  10. Re:Monkey scribes on Book Review: The Terrorists of Iraq · · Score: 1

    Shakespeare was an ape, not a monkey. And he didn't have a typewriter.

  11. Re:I am not able to find that disproof on Book Review: The Terrorists of Iraq · · Score: 1

    On Wikipedia's Infinite monkey theorem page, the very first sentence under the heading "Solution" is:

    There is a straightforward proof of this theorem.

    Another commenter has said that Penzias demonstrated the astronomically vast amount of time such an effort would take, but this is not a disproof of the theorem.

    pages 404

    Is it bad that my first thought when I read that was: "How could he not find out how many pages it had?"

  12. Re:A GPS company. on Apple Acquires GPS Start-Up · · Score: 2

    No, but the bodies will start piling up with greater accuracy.

  13. Re:Sooooo...... on Men's Rights Activists Call For Boycott of Mad Max: Fury Road · · Score: 1

    Most Americans have different opinions to me and my wife and are therefore wrong.

    FTFY.

  14. Re:call me skeptical on FBI Alleges Security Researcher Tampered With a Plane's Flight Control Systems · · Score: 1

    What I'm pointing out is that him previously stating that he took control of a virtual plane does not rule out him subsequently taking control of a real plane, though it's not clear from the article just what period "previously" covers, and now I think about it it's vague enough to make little sense whichever way you take it.

    Still, his previous denial that he took control of an actual plane does seem to clash a little with his new stance of apparently quite carefully not denying that he took control of an actual plane.

  15. No, according to the article he had previously said he did it in a simulated environment. But now the FBI is claiming he's admitted to doing it on an actual plane.

    And his most recent stance seems to be that: "he wouldn’t respond directly to questions about whether he had hacked that previous flight mentioned in the affidavit."

    If he (still) didn't do it, he could just say he (still) didn't do it. "Out of context" sounds suspiciously like "yes I did, but..."

  16. Re:call me skeptical on FBI Alleges Security Researcher Tampered With a Plane's Flight Control Systems · · Score: 3, Informative

    he didn't do it (on a real plane).

    The "not on a real plane" bit comes from this paragraph of the article:

    Roberts had previously told WIRED that he caused a plane to climb during a simulated test on a virtual environment he and a colleague created, but he insisted then that he had not interfered with the operation of a plane while in flight.

    That was then. This is now.

    The FBI says he admitted to - briefly - taking control of a plane .He's saying they've got that "out of context". The only context I can think of that makes it okay is if it was with the full knowledge and backing of the airline.

  17. Re:Won't save most of the 4000 lives on The Economic Consequences of Self-Driving Trucks · · Score: 1

    Mass of the truck?

    Not for friction. Friction is massless.

    Not sure what you mean by "not for friction." As I understand it the coefficient of friction for two materials doesn't depend on mass, but doesn't the "friction force" depend on the amount of force pressing the materials together? I.e. the weight of the truck? Okay, I said "mass," but I'm pretty sure the incident recounted occurred on Earth.

    Anyway, so does that increase in "friction force" then balance the additional intertia of a heavier truck? My tests with empty and fully-laden cereal boxes and a carpeted floor are inconclusive but suggest that this may well be the case, so I am enlightened.

    If you knew physics, you'd know that.

    Never said I did. That's why I asking questions, and why I started my post with "correct me if I'm wrong," so I'm not sure why you've included that remark, which comes across as a bit condescending.

    Perhaps "winding" would then be the best word. No confusion, and same meaning.

    But then I wouldn't have been able to make it into an oblique reference to a Family Guy joke.

  18. Re:Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi on Wind Turbines With No Blades · · Score: 2

    motor
    noun
    noun: motor; plural noun: motors
    1. a machine, especially [but not exclusively] one powered by electricity or internal combustion, that supplies motive power for a vehicle or for some other device with moving parts.

    A car engine is a motor.

  19. Re:Won't save most of the 4000 lives on The Economic Consequences of Self-Driving Trucks · · Score: 1

    I'm a physics major, so I measured the location of where he locked his brakes, and the point he came to a stop. A little high school algebra showed he was moving 80-85 MPH in a 70 MPH zone when he hit his brakes.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you need to know rather more than where he locked his brakes and where he stopped? Mass of the truck? Coefficient of friction between tires and road, which will depend on tire pressure, road conditions, temperature...?

    Your point that plenty of drivers are woefully inattentive is valid, of course. I've seen the same situation as you describe occur on countless occasions on the windy* roads where I live (where it often helps to look out for reflections of cars on the sides of other cars), though never to the point of there being an accident. Yet.

    *Curvy. Not blowy.

  20. ...or you could try not to cram in so many effects and just make a game that's fun to play and doesn't stutter.

  21. Half the size of Rhode Island? on Larson B Ice Shelf In Antarctica To Disintegrate Within 5 Years · · Score: 1

    Isn't there anywhere that's half the size of Rhode Island that this ice shelf could be compared to?

  22. Re:3D printing titanium on Turtle Receives First-Ever 3D Printed Titanium Jaw Implant of Its Kind · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sintering, perhaps?

    Put down a thin layer of titanium powder, flash over it with a laser to fuse powder particles together. Add another layer of powder, repeat.

    Whether or not you call that 3D printing, well...

  23. Re:The trick... on Douglas Williams Pleads Guilty To Training Customers To Beat Polygraph · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think it's more that he was specifically stating that he would assist his customers in lying to the government on job applications and the like.

    In unrelated news, I'm hosting a class on how to beat lie detectors, but it's for entertainment purposes only. And I'll take a lie detector test to prove it.

  24. Oops on How Light at Night Affects Preschoolers' Sleep Patterns (Video) · · Score: 3, Informative

    @page { margin: 0.79in } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120% }

    Careful. Your CSS is showing.

  25. Re:Another brick in the garden wall on Top Publishers To Post News Stories Directly To Facebook Timelines · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I'm American and it disgusts me as much as you.

    Oh, now, don't be so hard on yourself. You couldn't help where you were born.