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User: Iphtashu+Fitz

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  1. Re:Check out twinhan DVB-S cards for an alternativ on An End To Unencrypted Digital Cable TV and the HTPC · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure the cable company will be more than happy to provide you with a cable card if you need it. That'll just be an additional $9.95 per month rental fee for the additional outlet.

  2. Re:TiVo was cool... on TiVo Relaunching As a Patent Troll? · · Score: 1

    TiVo doesn't want to get into the content distribution business. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, etc. already do this so there's plenty of competition in that area. The great thing about TiVo is that if you use one of these services it's easy to set it up to watch videos on demand. My girlfriend has Netflix but doesn't have a TiVo so we plugged her Netflix account info into my TiVo. Now whenever she's over at my place we can watch any of the movies that she's selected and is available to be watched via download. Once you've gone through the initial setup it's a piece of cake to use - it's just another menu choice in the TiVo.

  3. For once I'm glad... on Real-Time Keyloggers · · Score: 1

    ... that I'm still a Bank of America customer. I've grown to like their 2-factor authentication mechanism. You can set up your account so that whenever you try to log in they send a random 6-digit number to you via a text message to your phone. You then enter that number into the website as you're logging in. Since it's truly a one-time-use number sent out of band from the way you're logging in it's about as secure as you can get.

  4. Re:Waste of Time, Money and Good Equipment on The Homemade Hard Disk Destroyer · · Score: 1

    Heh. I think we still have some 1-3gb hard drives in use here. Universities area a bastion of ancient hardware.

  5. Re:Why people keep unencrypted data? on The Homemade Hard Disk Destroyer · · Score: 2, Informative

    My university group manages about 500 systems, mostly various flavors of solaris & linux with a few other unixes tossed in. First off, trying to encrypt all the disks in all of those systems (some of which are HUGE) would be a massive undertaking. Then there's the issue of trying to find an encryption system that's compatible across all these systems, the additional overhead needed to do the encryption/decryption, and the process of storing the encryption keys for all these systems. It's simply not worth the effort in large environments like this.

  6. Re:Overkill? on The Homemade Hard Disk Destroyer · · Score: 1

    Many corporations have degaussers. They're certainly not limited to the government & military. Our university has one that they use to wipe all disks before physically destroying the disk. You can buy a good quality degausser for a couple thousand dollars, about the same cost as a high end PC.

  7. Re:Overkill? on The Homemade Hard Disk Destroyer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Of course it's a security risk. If the disk fell into the wrong hands they my not be able to read everything from your system but they certainly could read bits of useful information. If it's from a RAID 5 or RAID 6 volume they may only get bits and pieces of data but something like a RAID 0 or RAID 1 volume could glean lots of useful data. Think of it sort of like a shredded classified document. RAID 5 or 6 means they may have a handful of the shreds of the document, and any of those could contain snippets of useful information like usernames, passwords, bank account numbers, etc. RAID 0 would mean you might have half or all of the shredded document. RAID 1 would pretty much guarantee that you have the full document.

  8. Re:Physical access required on Apple Keyboard Firmware Hack Demonstrated · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And, as they say, physical access is root access. There are an unlimited number of ways someone could compromise your computer if they are given access to the hardware and firmware

    Only as long as they have a fair amount of time. The beauty of this hack is that you could set up a laptop so that any keyboards that get plugged into it are immediately infected. Then you only need a few seconds alone with the targets computer to unplug the keyboard, plug it into your laptop to infect it, then plug it back into the targets computer and leave. It minimizes the risk of being caught trying to do something more extensive to the system. You just walk into an unoccupied office and walk back out 30 seconds later knowing that the keylogger is installed, as opposed to spending 30 minutes in the office trying to reboot, get into the firmware, etc.

  9. Makes me glad... on Apple Keyboard Firmware Hack Demonstrated · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ...that I don't like the Mac keyboards. I use a Mac Pro at work but the first thing I did was go out and buy a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard. Yeah, I know it's probably blasphemy to many to mix MS & Apple hardware, but I've used MS ergonomic keyboards since they practically first came out, both at home and at work, and would never go back to a regular keyboard, especially one from Apple. I've yet to see one from Apple that doesn't make my hands ache after a few hours of use.

  10. Re:Absurd on Researchers Debut Barcode Replacement · · Score: 1

    RTFA. They already have a passive prototype.

    Beyond that, I agree with your sentiment.

  11. Re:Hmmm... on Researchers Debut Barcode Replacement · · Score: 1

    I suggest you RTFA before commenting on it:

    "We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan. In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, he added.

  12. Re:but it's powered on Researchers Debut Barcode Replacement · · Score: 1

    Solar cells, reflectors, etc. all still cost significantly more than a piece of paper and a fraction of a penny's worth of ink.

  13. Re:I guess I should prepare for extinction then on Standalone GPS Receivers Going the Way of the Dodo · · Score: 1

    Also no smartphone will connect to other devices on board your boat. Many high-end marine devices like radar, GPS, autopilots, plotters, etc. can all be integrated using technologies like NMEA protocols.

  14. Re:BING on Microsoft Changing Users' Default Search Engine · · Score: 0

    More like Google/Bing

  15. Time to hoard what I've got... on FDA Considers Banning Acetaminophen-Based Pain Killers · · Score: 1

    I just got a bottle of Vicodin for a root canal last week. My girlfriend has an even bigger bottle of Valium for back problems she's having. Luckily neither of us are in as much pain as was anticipated so we're not using it up very much. I guess we'll have to milk them both for as long as we can.

  16. Re:Do we really need GPS to track mileage ? on GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And you don't think the Feds wouldn't think of this sort of thing? They'll likely design the thing to compare what the GPS records with your odometer (and tampering with that is already a federal offense), require both to be inspected on a regular basis, and also back the whole thing up with federal legislation making any sort of tampering illegal and subject to a nice long stay at Club Fed.

  17. Re:Do we really need GPS to track mileage ? on GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested · · Score: 1

    There are more and more options for fuel these days, and in the next 10 years there are likely to be even more. Hybrid cars are commonplace today. Electric cars are becoming more popular. There's research into other forms of fuel as well. A federal tax on gasoline provides an unfair advantage to those who use alternative fuels, and trying to effectively tax every possible form of fuel for vehicles would be an extremely difficult task. Since these taxes are meant to generate the funds to maintain public roads then it makes more sense to tax people based on how much they use those roads, not on how much gasoline they purchase. As it is, people who drive a Prius are getting taxed a lot less than those who own Hummers, but the Prius drivers have more of an impact on the roads because they can drive much further (and cause much more wear on the roads) than the Hummer drivers. This is just an attempt to even the playing field as far as taxation goes.

    Or would you rather that the federal government start taxing all your water usage when somebody finally figures out how to make a car run on the stuff?

  18. Re:Do we really need GPS to track mileage ? on GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It does if the states decide to piggyback off the service as well, and you can rest assured that they'll want to. Since federal fuel taxes are dropping it means state fuel taxes are also declining for the exact same reasons. They'll likely want to use this system to tax drivers on their state roads, and to do that you need the accuracy & tracking that GPS provides.

  19. Re:Blu-ray? on BD+ Resealed Once Again · · Score: 1

    Only if you ever want to watch content created before December 15, 2008. That's the date of the last known HD-DVD release.

  20. What BS their logic is on Rhode Island Affiliates Banned From Amazon.com Sales · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm in Massachusetts. If I happen to visit the website of the Trinity Repertory Theater (www.trinityrep.com), a theater located in Providence, RI, then my internet traffic doesn't even pass through Rhode Island, much less end in Rhode Island. Their website is hosted by a low-cost provider out in California. The only tie to Rhode Island is that the website was created by an organization in Rhode Island. If I visit that website I don't "visit" Rhode Island. So why should Rhode Island have ANY claim on anything I might purchase from an affiliate program hosted on that site? I'm visiting a website hosted in California and if they were an Amazon affiliate then that would involve a company located in Washington. RI doesn't have any valid claim to tax such a transaction.

    By their own logic, I'm buying goods from a brick & mortar store in California (or more appropriately Seattle), NOT Rhode Island. If anything, the company in RI is simply acting as an advertising agency. They designed an advertisement (the website) that's on display in California for a company that actually does business in Washington.

  21. Re:Judgement on Spammer Alan Ralsky Pleads Guilty · · Score: 1

    True, it may be sent via botnets, but it's received by centralized servers. I work at a university that receives on average 1.1 million e-mails a day. Over 2/3 of that is spam. We have a massive infrastructure of spam filtering systems and storage networks just to handle our regular level of e-mail for our thousands of users. The additional cost and manpower to prevent spam from getting through is tremendous. Just the bandwidth alone for receiving 600,000 spams a day (approx. 10 gigabytes) is pretty high. We also have to deal with the regularly occuring student laptop that gets infected with malware and starts sending out spam from the university. Tracking those sorts of things down can be very time consuming. So the bottom line is that spam is a very real and significant cost in terms of storage, bandwidth, and manpower for large organizations like companies, universities, etc.

    You want to start paying for the 10 gig of daily bandwidth costs that are directly attributed to spam for us?

  22. Passwords? on Montana City Requires Workers' Internet Accounts · · Score: 1

    Glad I don't live in Montana... I am absolutely shocked that they're requesting passwords. I'd tell them to go to hell and shove the application where the sun doesn't shine.

  23. Re:Not happening to me on Comcast Intercepts and Redirects Port 53 Traffic · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've had my Comcast IP (outside Boston) change about 2 or 3 times on me in the span of about 5 years. It doesn't happen often, but it does. I believe it's only been when they need to add capacity to an area.

  24. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? on Microsoft Bing Search Launches Early Preview · · Score: 1

    I didn't say "crappy results". I'm simply referring to skewed results in the favor of Microsoft, its products, and it's partners & their products.

  25. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? on Microsoft Bing Search Launches Early Preview · · Score: 1

    OK, here are some other ways MS could skew results in their favor:

    Suppose somebody wants to search for DVR's. What's to prevent MS from skewing results so that all the top searches are for Windows Media Center products, add-in cards for Windows that provide DVR functionality, etc. and bury results that mention TiVo and other DVR's that don't require Windows? I know people who aren't very computer savvy and trust whatever "the internet" returns for search results. They could easily be swayed by the large number of search results Windows Media Center, especially if things like TiVo aren't mentioned until the third or fourth page of search results.

    Suppose somebody is searching for new car reviews, and the Bing results favor reviews of cars that contain Microsoft's "Sync" technology. If you get lots of search results glorifying the earth-shattering features of Sync it could help to sway a car buyers decision.

    Or somebody who isn't very technologically savvy is searching for information on video games in order to buy a gift for a child and the first few pages of results are all XBox related links? Well, gee, the XBox must be the only way to go!

    Pick any technology where Microsoft has ANY sort of presence and the search results from their engine come into question. You can find their software embedded in everything from phones to DVR's & TV's (Samsung & MS are building an XBox/HDTV hybrid) to automobiles to home automation. Microsoft also has invested in over 100 other companies including websites like WebMD & Facebook, companies like Ticketmaster & Hitachi, etc. Who's to say that the results you get from Bing don't artificially promote these companies and technologies because MS has a stake in them?

    Most of Google's acquisitions & investments apply specifically to improving their search products. They've acquired and/or invested in companies that do online advertising, map analysis, social networking, etc. They're technologies that are mainly used in their underlying products and not consumer facing products that you're likely to see pop up in search results. Microsoft, on the other hand, has a huge portfolio of consumer facing products that they have a vested interest in selling to consumers. Gaming search engine results is just one more method they could take in promoting those products.