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User: DarkFencer

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  1. Re:$2000 rebate on a $40000 electric vehicle on New York State To Launch Electric Vehicle Rebate (foxnews.com) · · Score: 1

    This isn't just for full electrics, but also for plug-in hybrids.

    For example, Prius Prime, about $27,000 MSRP, minus (for that car, based on it's battery kWH, it gets $4,500 from the federal credit. If it gets even half of the NYS credit, that brings the price down another $1,000 to $21,500, which is definitely on the affordable side of new cars.

  2. Re:Some providers are already doing this on AT&T Is Adding a Spam Filter For Phone Calls (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    time warner cable (now spectrum) also has this they are simply affiliated with www.nomorobo.com. I wonder if its the same backend

    According to Ooma's FAQ, they also use NoMoRobo.

  3. Some providers are already doing this on AT&T Is Adding a Spam Filter For Phone Calls (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Some providers are already doing something similar, and have been for a while. Ooma has had this as part of their 'premier' service for years.

    http://support.ooma.com/home/call-blocking-meta-article

    This unfortunately doesn't help for all the spoofed callerIDs that are being used though - especially for pure fraud (not just simple telemarketing).

  4. Re:They deserve some serious prison time. on Rogue Lawyers Made $6 Million Shaking Down Porn Pirates, Feds Say (theverge.com) · · Score: 5, Informative

    They put up the torrents themselves. This isn't leaving a $100 on the floor. This is putting a stack of $100s out with a sign saying "Free - take me!". They can't explicitly give the file out to people, then say you can't take it.

  5. Re:US Post Office always secure. on Senator Wants Nationwide, All-Mail Voting To Counter Election Hacks (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oddly, the party known for vote fraud seems to do quite well in Oregon.

    There is no party "known for vote fraud". All studies and investigations have shown voter fraud to be virtually non-existent.

    There is, on the other hand, a party that continually tries to restrict voting and disenfranchise voters while raising the specter of that non-existent voter fraud.

  6. Re:I wonder how the USA would rate... on Over 80 Percent of China's Well Water Is Polluted (voanews.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    You do realize that the EPA was brought into existence by the uberRepublican, Richard Nixon, right?

    Yes - absolutely. George H.W. Bush's administration got the 1990 extensions to the clean air act passed that were very successful. Environmental protections used to be bipartisan.

    Then one party (I'll let you guess which) abandoned any pretense of care for the environment and have actively pushed back against any environmental protections (and not just regarding climate change). That isn't to say under the democrats it has been perfect either. The Flint water crisis was primarily due to Michigan but the Feds (EPA) were asleep at the wheel too.

  7. Re:Bruce Schneier says on DoJ Wants Apple To Decrypt 12 More iPhones (macrumors.com) · · Score: 1

    The best solution I've seen so far, from right here on Slashdot, is to have future firmware updates require the phone to be unlocked. IOW, the user is presented with an alert, and the user must type in the passcode before the update is applied.

    This would seem to solve the problem for future releases, Apple could legitimately say that there's no way to unlock the phone.

    I think this is a great idea, but I don't think they can do it now until this situation is settled in the court. Not doing what the government has taken them to court on is one thing, but making what they are wanting harder while it isn't settled is obstruction of justice (I'm not a lawyer so the charge may not be exact but you get the idea).

  8. Let's not let the legitimate uses be ignored on UK Pilots' Union Calls For Laser Pointers To Be Classed As Offensive Weapons (theguardian.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These laser pointers are being used by a relatively small number of idiots/criminals, but being used by many for legitimate uses. They're fantastic for astronomy - many amateur astronomers use them to point out stars, constellations, nebulae, etc.

    They're a great tool for astronomy education and outreach and that use is far more common than the criminal ones.

  9. Re:Which string theory? on Prospects and Limits For the LHC's Capabilities To Test String Theory · · Score: 1

    There may be 40 things called string theory, but they all boil down to a few things:
      - point particles are actually vibrating strings
      - there are extra spatial dimensions
      - there isn't much in terms of specific testable predictions made by string theory

    The LHC tests may show things that hint at extra dimensions (of small but testable size, not planck length). This in and of itself wouldn't prove any of the individual string theories. But showing nothing that could indicate super symmetry or extra dimensions or other 'stringy' things would be an issue for strong theory.

    Disclaimer, I am not a physicist (string or otherwise).

  10. Remote opening? on Modern Cockpits: Harder To Invade But Easier To Lock Up · · Score: 0

    Seems like the easiest thing in this situation is to have the ability for someone on the ground (flight control, the airline, etc.) to be able to override any locks on the cockpit and open the door. Just put some sort of satellite communication device outside, near the door of the cabin.

    This would be available in a situation like the Germanwings flight, or if the pilot became legitimately incapacitated.

  11. Re:More than curious, on Software Freedom Conservancy Funds GPL Suit Against VMWare · · Score: 1

    Their management tools are transitioning, slowly to web based. There are tasks that ONLY work in the web client now but there are also tasks that ONLY exist in the Windows only desktop client.

    If you're only running guests, then you can get away with the slow web client. If you're managing the hosts you need to use both, for different things now.

  12. Barrier will reduce over next couple years on Google Teams Up With 3 Wireless Carriers To Combat Apple Pay · · Score: 1

    The biggest challenge however is one that both Apple and Google face: Only a small fraction of the 10 million or so retail outlets in the U.S.â"220,000 at last countâ"have checkout readers that can accept payments from either system.

    That is definitely true, but most credit card readers in the US that do not support EMV (aka Chip & Pin or Chip & Signature) have to be replaced if the merchant doesn't want to bear the liability for fraudulent transactions.

    The liability for compromised cards is shifting in October of this year (aside from some unattended systems like gas pumps which happen later). If a merchant does not support EMV and an EMV card is compromised or used fraudulently, the merchant is liable.

    Many of the new EMV capable terminals are also capable of NFC/contactless transactions. It will get a lot more of the physical readers out there. Whether the payment processors/acquirers support it is a different question.

  13. Customer-centric? on Microsoft Defies Court Order, Will Not Give Emails To US Government · · Score: 2

    I don't see them as customer-centric as much as self-serving. There is definitely a trend of non-US companies moving or thinking of moving their data off US servers. Moving them off US company/subsidiary servers in other countries is a huge threat to Nadella's cloud-focused Microsoft.

    It is a rational self-interested decision that may be good for consumers.

  14. Re:Weren't they trying to merge with Comcast? on Time Warner Turns Down Takeover Bid From Rupert Murdoch · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, Time Warner, Inc (what this story is referring to) is a different company from Time Warner Cable (which Comcast is looking to acquire).

    Its also different from TW Telecom (formerly Time Warner Telecom, which is being acquired by Level 3.

    Its a complicated mess of mergers and spinoffs...

  15. Re:Tenure should be available but not inviolable on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 1

    Therein lies the problem. What should it be based on? How many students pass? Standardized test scores? How about teachers that are good but get a job at a school whose students are generally poorer-performing vs teachers that aren't as good but work at a school with a higher caliber of students?

    Oh - I completely understand that it is a difficult question. Many of the evaluation options thrown out by people involve more standardize testing (which will favor students, and in turn teachers in better socioeconomic classes and with less English language learners).

    I'm not an educator myself, but I think an honest review for tenure purposes would have to consist of a comparison of student results from year-to-year, not just comparisons between students district/state/nation-wide. Then you could possibly see how a teacher has had a negative or positive (or net-zero) effect on student progress in their subject area.

    But again, this is my own layman's guess.

  16. Tenure should be available but not inviolable on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are important reasons for tenure in K-12 education, especially in this era. K-12 schools (and in turn teachers) in many areas receive incredible pressure from parents. It used to be if a child got poor grades the teacher wasn't the one blamed. Now there are many parents who have spoiled brats who they believe can do no wrong.

    That being said, tenure's protections should exist but should make teacher's positions far less invincible than they are in many areas now. There should be a process of discipline and removal for poor teachers. It should be as objective as possible so as to avoid undue parental pressure.

    Otherwise it creates a perverse incentive for teachers to inflate grades of their students.

  17. Not sure why anyone was surprised on The Strange Death of Comet Ison · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All the coverage I saw (from astronomy writers, NASA, etc.) said there was definitely a chance of it burning up.

    If the non-science media hyped it up somewhat, well they do that for everything. Yes, I a (and many others watched for ISON). Yes, we were disappointed, but no one should have been surprised.

  18. Re:Visiting a Site Isn't Cheating on Gabe Newell Responds: Yes, We're Looking For Cheaters Via DNS · · Score: 1, Informative

    Assuming Gabe is being truthful when he states that this is a secondary check triggered by some other evidence for cheating, then just visiting these sites wouldn't be enough.

    Its suspicious activity (reported by players? detected through other methods? not sure) that triggers the additional check(s).

  19. Re:Level the playing field on How Good Are Charter Schools For the Public School System? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the point is to take students who's parents care from bad schools and put them in an environment where they can get a decent education.

    Its not always about level of care the parents are providing but what they can provide. How much care towards education can a low-income single parent working two full time jobs provide?

    What is the parent doesn't have a great education themselves and aren't able to help their child academically (and only motivationally)?

    Should that child suffer, not only because of that, but because of dwindling resources in the public school system that are being drained by the charter schools?

    The students who are struggling are the ones who need the best resources/teaching/etc. If charter schools are as great as they are made out to be - they should be VOLUNTEERING to take students who are struggling academically, not shunning them like lepers.

  20. Level the playing field on How Good Are Charter Schools For the Public School System? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If charter schools are allowed to operate, then they shouldn't benefit from special privileges that public schools don't have. They should have to accept any students in the area (regardless of academic level, just like the public schools). They also should be required to have all students take the standardized tests (instead of finding reasons to exclude children who they know won't do as well, so the school looks better ranked in comparison).

    If charter schools aren't cheating and they are showing an improvement that is one thing. But too often they are cheating to make themselves look better compared to public schools.

  21. That's absurd on The Case For a Global, Compulsory Bug Bounty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That is an absurd argument. Yes some companies can and should offer bug bounties but if the only method you can rely on is out bidding the black market, then you've already lost.

    Not to mention, there are a lot of small companies, small foundations, and open source projects which could never afford such prices.

  22. Re:About time on Judge: NSA Phone Program Likely Unconstitutional · · Score: 1

    All three branches are immune from politics, when it comes to national security issues. There's a reason why blatantly illegal practices have near unanimous support amongst our representatives, and it's not because our government is a functioning democracy.

    I wouldn't say near unanimous by any means. There are lots on the edges of the right and left who were against this. The Amash amendment, which would have drastically reined in the data the NSA collected (not as much as necessary, but a good start). It failed in the US House by only 217-205. Of those voting for the amendment, it was 111 Democrats, 95 Republicans.

    That it failed was disappointing but it shows that we're not that far from having a majority for bills like this. We just need to get more of the establishment folks on both sides out of office.

  23. Re:...and suddenly on Martha Stewart Out To Exterminate Patent Troll Lodsys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I always had sympathy for her after her jail sentence. She went to jail for a MINOR insider trading case (where they couldn't even prove that, just obstruction of justice), while those who collapsed the economy got off scot free.

    Hope her company drives the patent trolls into the ground. And then she decorates the grave with some potpourri warning signs to other trolls or some such.

  24. Re:Couldn't have happened to nicer people... on Biggest Headache For Game Developers: Abusive Fans · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, of course not; there should definitely be a censhorship apparatus put in place.. right? That's what you're implying/suggesting, I assume?

    Yes - self-censorship. The internal voice that says, or should say, "This is something that should not be said to another person, since I (ideally) don't want to be a jack ass".

  25. Re:Couldn't have happened to nicer people... on Biggest Headache For Game Developers: Abusive Fans · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gaming industry deserves all the abuse it gets. Extreme cases of abuse aside, all criticism is they get is deserved.

    But who should be getting the abuse you advocate? The executives of the big publishers or the regular folks working for the industry to actually make games? I've disliked games before but that doesn't mean that I should be justified to spew vitriol at the coders, artists and others working in the industry.