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  1. Yes, WebDAV is still around. It's not a bad spec, really useful in corporate environments.

    I'm seeing complaints about Chrome's disabling of data: in the navigation bar having broken jsPDF, and that makes sense -- if they try to translate a PDF file into HTML client-side and display the temporary result in a new tab, it'll fail. The same would be true if you were generating SVG or PDF content on the fly and pushing it into a new tab for display (graphing libraries, report-generators, etc. that operate client-side rather than server-side).
    It does look like they kept the functionality working as long as it's in an IFRAME, but those can get ugly to work with. At least we won't be the only ones scrambling to create workarounds...

  2. There are legitimate uses for data: URI in the navigational bar, too. I have one that I'll have to recode now, that was the result of having to work around the horrible lack of useful WebDAV support in modern browsers. Popping a new page up in a separate tab (to not mess up a single-page-application) to then do a redirect, etc. was the solution I had to come to, after Firefox killed plugins that don't meet their security requirements (which we don't for our in-house extension, because it uses the Registry and launches apps, to try to get around the same problem of poor WebDAV support -- none of that will get past today's plugin-signing process, so the extension has to die.) Data URI were a quick and easy solution for serving up temporary content in a new tab, which I'll need to replace with some kind of server-hosted page ... not at all impossible, but dang it, I had it working and it was simpler. Phishers ruin it for the rest of us.

  3. Re:Well on Election Assistance Commission Hacked Using SQL Injection (reuters.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Agreed.
    I get that developers are lazy and can be expected to shy away from security features that get in the way, but come on, Prepared Statements have been around for a very long time, and in a lot of ways, they make your life easier (prettier code, streamed-blob-handling, no escaping, datatype checks):
    They should be your /default/ coding practice, not what you reluctantly pick up after a breach or an audit!

  4. Re:can somebody explain on Internet Archive Posted 10,000 Browser-Playable Amiga Titles (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    The javascript emulator would have access to https://www.w3.org/TR/webstora...

  5. Wasn't part of the point of NTLMv2 (vs. NTLMv1) that it required a challenge/response with the server, to make stolen hashes less useful?

  6. Why is this being pushed as news? Possibly because of the current dust-up between conservatives (Fox News) and Facebook, accusing Facebook of bias in editorial decisions affecting the "trending now" section; there's talk of overwhelmingly liberal workforce in silicon valley, and anything that supports the idea that silicon valley is not representative of the rest of the country would help buoy that complaint. Or maybe for completely unrelated reasons, I dunno.

  7. When did downloading a file become a copyright violation? As I recall, copyright protects against redistribution without permission, which would apply to the uploaders but not the downloaders, no?

  8. Re:F-35 on Combat Lasers To Be Added To US Fighter Jets (nextbigfuture.com) · · Score: 1

    http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.c... -- there was already discussion in 2014 about replacing the lift fan with dual (top & bottom) laser domes.

  9. judicial power on NY Bill Would Force Decryption of Smartphones On Demand (onthewire.io) · · Score: 1

    “The fact is that, although the new software may enhance privacy for some users, it severely hampers law enforcement’s ability to aid victims. All of the evidence contained in smartphones and similar devices will be lost to law enforcement, so long as the criminals take the precaution of protecting their devices with passcodes. Of course they will do so. Simply stated, passcode-protected devices render lawful court orders meaningless and encourage criminals to act with impunity.”

    Lawful requests are not automatically meaningful -- fetch me the moon, explain love, find the last digit of pi, relocate this unmovable rock... You can always ask, you can punish those who resist the order, but in the end you either need to learn to accept failure, or think twice before asking for the impossible.

    The argument is that at some point, law enforcement or a court might want some piece of information, but face embarrassment when naively requesting that which is inaccessible? Cry me a river! Just because information "exists", or is believed to exist, it does not necessarily follow that it should be possible (nor easy) for a judge or detective to fetch it.

    A judge may someday want to know where I was, yesterday at 3:14am. Does that mean it would make sense to require me to keep a sufficiently precise diary, or wear an ankle monitor, just to enable that possible future discovery request, so the poor slob doesn't have to face disappointment? Law enforcement has always been a cat-and-mouse game, where it's expected you won't be able to get information the easy way; bills requiring it to be easy won't change that.

  10. Re:Bad argument on Cold Fusion and the Reputation Trap (aeon.co) · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Seems a touch more nuanced than that, but still concerning.

  11. Re:FireBird... enough said on Why To Choose PostgreSQL Over MySQL, MariaDB (dice.com) · · Score: 1
  12. Re:Galera Clustering on Why To Choose PostgreSQL Over MySQL, MariaDB (dice.com) · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately, no. Postgres can only replicate to other instances operating on igneous rocks (e.g. obsidian and sovite) but the data gets lost if sent to instances hosted on chalk or gneiss. Might be fixed in 9.6, though.

  13. Re:Since when was speed a problem for PostgreSQL? on Why To Choose PostgreSQL Over MySQL, MariaDB (dice.com) · · Score: 1

    Early on mysql was limited in the kinds of joins it could do...
    Can it do a FULL OUTER JOIN yet?

  14. Re:FireBird... enough said on Why To Choose PostgreSQL Over MySQL, MariaDB (dice.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I happen to use and love FB, it's been rock-solid for me for over a decade now, but I've never pushed it for *performance* reasons. It's always been about the features: MVCC that always works (unlike Oracle's, and on-by-default unlike SQLServer's), transactional triggers (came in really handy), triggers that do what you intend (unlike SQLServer's), better temporary-table mechanisms than SQLServer, better stored procedures (selectable like a table-valued-function, but can read & write like a stored procedure). There's no equivalent to PostGIS, though, and there's no built-in replication method beyond shadow databases. And other stuff that a Wikipedia page would be better at explaining.

    If you're serious about speed, I'd love to see benchmarks to back you up. If you're trolling, I hope readers will consider Firebird anyway, it really is a good DBMS.

  15. Re:Since when was speed a problem for PostgreSQL? on Why To Choose PostgreSQL Over MySQL, MariaDB (dice.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    I would expect the issue to be MVCC, not FKs. Both Postgres and Firebird do MVCC, which incurs overhead when writing data (never overwrite, always add delta records, then fix pointers so readers can follow the chain, and also cleanup deltas no longer needed by any active transactions) and when reading data (follow pointer chains, verify a given record should be visible to the current transaction despite it being listed in the slightly-larger index), etc.
    The switch from myISAM to InnoDB brings MVCC with it (in addition to, as you point out, actual constraints) so the cause/effect may be unclear.

  16. Re:10 years is not enough on Fake Bomb Detector, Blamed For Hundreds of Deaths, Is Still In Use · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about the people who procured these units and didn't test them, either before the sale, or before deploying them? Complete lack of due diligence. Are they not liable too?

  17. http://www.abc.net.au/news/201... -- Cardiff rejected the student petition to uninvite Greer from giving a guest lecture. Dawkins supports letting her speak, and he's no conservative.

    a) it didn't actually happen; Greer has pulled out because, at 76, she's "too old" to face protesters according to http://www.newstatesman.com/po...

    b) she wouldn't have been "banned from campus", but her one guest lecture would have been canceled

    c) it's not like all liberals, or leftists, agree -- sweeping generalizations are unfounded

    d) this is not about squashing free speech, the way Freedom of Speech (at the federal level) is meant: nobody's preventing these people from having their opinions, but they are asking not to have tax dollars (publicly-funded schools) or tuition money spent on giving them a platform to spew what some people *see* not just as "wrong" but outright "hateful" speech (rightly or wrongly). the logic is that a school only invites so many guests, it has to be selective, there's value and judgment applied, so the school's reputation is attached to what the speaker actually says (and may be seen as reflecting something about the student body), it's not the same as letting them rant on any old street-corner.

  18. Damn, I didn't realize that Buckley provided moral justification for LGBT's (a minority, who happens to be in the right) overruling the majority. Thankfully they didn't have to resort to violence to do so, but it would have been justified, I guess. Handy quote!

  19. Over interplanetary distances, isn't there an issue with adjusting the orientation of the laser to track the movements of the receiver? Measurement error being what it is, N-body problems complicating things, and with a lag determined by C, would it become necessary to setup a relay network, where each component is responsible for readjusting itself in a timely fashion? Each node would need a power source, emit waste heat, occasionally thrust to reposition itself... Beyond that, laser beams in a vacuum still diverge over long distances, bleeding some EM away from the intended target. Would such a relay network be detectable?

  20. Re:Earth not a globe, where are they going?? on Company Aims To Launch Spacecraft On Beams of Microwaves · · Score: 1

    See HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, episode 12, discussing how the TV camera on the rover was remotely-controlled from earth (operators trying to manually account for command delay, resulting in some missed liftoff footage on some missions.)
    The rover had its own high-gain antenna for direct communication with Earth, including transmitting TV footage while the rover was stopped (audio only while moving, using low-gain antenna.)

  21. Re:Why? on Why Is It a Crime For Dennis Hastert To Evade Government Scrutiny? · · Score: 1

    My reading of the link you posted above is that they dropped the mail-fraud and contempt charges stemming from him continuing to file legal documents warning of "dispute" over the properties the government seized (to make the properties undesirable to potential buyers and thus screw the taxpayers) during his prosecution, wherein he and his wife *were* found guilty of (quite a few counts of) structuring, tax evasion, etc. As far as I can tell, the original charges have not been dropped.

    Did the government prosecute them for appearing to purposefully avoid reporting on large withdrawals so they could further hide not paying taxes on the wages paid to their employees (argued to be independent contractors, but there are reasons you can't just claim that when the IRS comes knocking)? Or for being a creationist telling the truth, because the government's just a pawn of atheist, evolutionist, neo-Nazis? You decide.

    Did the government prosecute him for filing Notice of Pending Suit from prison, after the case seizing his properties had concluded, as a form of harassment, trying to prevent the government from doing what the jury of peers agreed they could do, thus the contempt charge? Or were they charging him with mail fraud because filing Lis Pendens in court is a form of freedom of speech the government just cannot allow, because it might allow creationist truth to get out? You decide.

  22. Re:mmmm... that feels good... on The Search For Neutrons That Leak Into Our World From Other Universes · · Score: 1

    +1 Asimov

  23. Re:tag, but don't hide! on Facebook Will Let You Flag Content As 'False' · · Score: 1

    You'd be wrong to think I disagree with you. It cuts both ways, and that's okay!

    Going further, I'd like to know what hoaxes other people are being exposed to, so I have some clue before they start spouting fecal matter at the watercooler. Rather than suppress the hoax, I'd rather publicize it (preferably alongside proof.)

  24. tag, but don't hide! on Facebook Will Let You Flag Content As 'False' · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd rather that people who would normally see such a hoax article in their feed, always go ahead and see it -- with the disclaimer attached. They're likely to see it elsewhere anyway, why not use the opportunity to inform them that it's likely false? Instead, they get to see a story on Fox, then open their Facebook feed, and see nothing about it ... now not only are they not told it's false, it even looks like a liberal conspiracy to cover-up the truth! So very helpful.

  25. Re:The Dangers of the World on Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone · · Score: 1

    Children belong to the State.

    The converse is hardly better, though. Plenty of parents argue, in the same vein as States' Rights, that their kids are essentially their property to dispose of as they wish: to teach what they wish, to discipline as they wish, and so forth. I'm a parent, and yes, I have that instinct to kill anyone who comes between me and my kid -- but a little humility goes a long way. We're not born knowing how to parent, and many aren't even raised to know how to parent, not having any good role-models. It leaves a lot of parents with a very "well, I survived it, so can you" attitude that is unhealthy. Having a system by which our peers can intervene, either to show us how we're doing our kids a disservice, or to rescue our kids from us when we lose our minds, isn't a bad idea.

    Kids belong to themselves, we're just along for the ride, for a while.