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User: Alain+Williams

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  1. Re:How is this a good idea? on New Permission System Could Make Android Much Less Secure · · Score: 1

    For those apps that absolutely demand access to something, then you should be able to fake it. So: the app that demands access to your address book, you give it one with a couple of bogus entries. It is my machine so I should get to choose what is allowed.

    I suspect that most users will not bother or just don't care and so will not check permissions - for them it is easier to complain & blame someone else when they get a problem.

  2. Re:Texbook free or textbook company free? on South African Schools To Go Textbook Free · · Score: 1

    Are they going with opensource textbooks ...

    Maybe not a lot of them at the moment, but a textbook only needs to be written once, 'published' for free and it can be used by everyone for ever afterwards. OK: not quite so simple since they will need to be updated for changing curriculum needs (especially things that change like the sciences) and will need to be translated into different languages. But an e-textbook done properly & you can do so many things that paper cannot: links to videos, links to stuff on the net, good searching, student annotation/highlights & linking between topics.

    Writing good textbooks takes effort, but a start would be copies from the net of individual articles explaining single topics -- bitty and inconsistent styles but a start. The traditional textbook vendors are going to fight back, it will get dirty but, in time, they will lose.

  3. So: where is the liability ? on Millions of Smart TVs Vulnerable To 'Red Button' Attack · · Score: 1

    Joe Sixpack suffers a loss as a result of such an attack, who compensates him ? He has never heard of the possibility, but ignorance cannot be claimed by neither the smart TV manufacturers nor the TV broadcaster nor the local standards regulator. All of the latter will claim that it was some 'malicious 3rd party', but they knew about it and took no action to mitigate the threat. It is no longer an excuse to complain that ''it is software and very complicated''.

    Who will compensate Joe Sixpack ?

  4. That description of nuclear spin ... on Electrical Control of Nuclear Spin Qubits: Important Step For Quantum Computing · · Score: 0

    I read it, but it all just made me feel dizzy!

  5. Re:Life Sentences! on Life Sentences For Serious Cyberattacks Proposed In Britain · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Add self-serving & corrupt bankers and lawyers to that lot and you get my vote

  6. Re:1984+100=2084 on NSA Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images · · Score: 2

    They already did make wearing a mask a crime in Canada, punishable by 10 fucking years in jail.

    That is wearing a face mask in public, it does not cover private pictures.

    However: so that you can recognise me when we meet to plant our bomb at the embassy I have some pictures of me.

  7. Please tell this to the family courts on Parenting Rewires the Male Brain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    who persistently find in favour of the woman, ignoring the benefits that a father can bring to children: if mother does not want her ex-partner around the courts do little to help dad remain in the kids lives. She can break court orders with little penalty while dad is faced with huge legal bills and delays. The courts pretend to act in the best interests of the children - but really they are prejudiced in favour of mothers.

  8. Does that mean ... on US To Charge Chinese Military Employees With Hacking · · Score: 5, Insightful

    that I can sue the NSA for trying to crack my machines and that the USA will extradite the NSA employees to the UK so that they can be tried in our courts ? Do the people at the USA DOJ understand the meaning of the word ''irony'' ?

    This is more outlandish than even something that most political satire writers would have dreamed up.

  9. Re:Good on UK May Kill the EU's Net Neutrality Law · · Score: 5, Informative

    Many of those ISPs are just reselling BT bandwidth. If BT throttles certain sites all these will be effected.

    BT do not resell bandwidth to the Internet, it operates a packet switching network over ATM that connects you to your ISP. You ISP connects you to the Internet and might filter or throttle some sites. BT does not look inside the ATM packets that travel over its network and so does not throttle some traffic - in theory anyway.

    BT also operates as an ISP which is probably where the confusion lies.

  10. Remove computers can be anywhere ... on DOJ Requests More Power To Hack Remote Computers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    including other countries; I did not notice anything in the article restricting this to computers in the USA. Other countries might not agree with the USA DOJ allowing computers in their countries to be cracked -- thus the USA cops/investigators will be conducting criminal acts in other countries -- how does that make them different from what the USA wanted to grab Gary McKinnon for ?

  11. Re:Low end can become high end on AMD Not Trying To Get Its Chips Into Low-Cost Tablets · · Score: 1

    your anaolgy does not work. PCs and mini-computers were fundementally different, applications written for one would, generally, not work on the other. When low end tablets become more powerful: AMD has the products to just slot in and take advantage. AMD has both x86 & ARM chips -- it even has one that does both!

    The other thing to worry about is business relationships with the tablet vendors. AMD sells to many of them, so no problem there.

    No, AMD is not locking itself out of this market.

  12. The low end tablet market is sewn up on AMD Not Trying To Get Its Chips Into Low-Cost Tablets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    by those selling ARM. So why should AMD compete ?

  13. Is it far enough away ? on Microsoft Plans $1 Billion Server Farm In Iowa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The project Alluvion site is approximately 8 miles east from the current Microsoft data center in West Des Moines

    8 miles is not far. It is not too hard to envisage a disaster that could affect both sites at once. For starters: Iowa is smack in the middle of Tornado Alley. They are close enough that power supplies and Internet connections will be 'related'. OK: it makes it easier for staff to visit both sites, but 80 miles seems to me safer than 8.

  14. The wrong license on Plant Breeders Release 'Open Source Seeds' · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The license used is:

    "It basically says these seeds are free to use in any way you want. They can't be legally protected. Enjoy them."

    This is a GPL type license. There is nothing to stop Monsanto from going to a farmer who is using these seeds and saying:

    Pollen from one of our products blew in last year and so these seeds now contain some of our genes, so you now owe us for using these seeds and can't give it away to anyone.

    The only way to deal with Monsanto is to beat them at their own game. One way would be to develop a seed with some novel genes (call them NoGe) and copyright these under something like the GPL. Then grow these seeds upwind of a Monsanto development facility; when, later, Monsanto then sue someone for illegal use of their seeds a NoGe 'owner' could testify that the Monsanto seeds must be allowed free to everyone use due to the 'viral nature' of the GPL. That legal punch up would be interesting to watch!

  15. Talking of unpaid taxes ... on IRS Can Now Seize Your Tax Refund To Pay a Relative's Debt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now that the government of the USA has decided to remove the statue of limitations as regards taxation, might I remind Barack Obama of the little matter of unpaid taxes to King George III of England. These date back to your protest against the 1773 Tea Act. Can I tell her Magesty's government that payment will soon be made ?

  16. Why just the BBC ? on Inside the Stolen Smartphone Black Market In London · · Score: 2

    If the BBC can do this ... why aren't the police doing so ? They would not need to do it very often, just enough to put the fear of god in those who act as a fence.

  17. They deserve congratulations ... on Akamai Reissues All SSL Certificates After Admitting Heartbleed Patch Was Faulty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    for having the integrity to admit that they screwed up the first time.

  18. Short comments please. on 44% of Twitter Users Have Never Tweeted · · Score: 1

    Will everyone commenting to this please do so in at most 140 characters. Thank you.

  19. Temporary workaround on Google Chrome Flaw Sets Your PC's Mic Live · · Score: 4, Funny

    Get the wife & kids to learn and speak Navajo at home. It worked for the USA in World War II so it can work for you too!

  20. Whomade the DMCA complaint ? on Dropbox's New Policy of Scanning Files For DMCA Issues · · Score: 2

    The image of the error message did not say who, or which corporation, had made the DMCA complaint. I thought that in order for something to be taken down under the DMCA the user had to be told who was complaining.

    In this case: the user admits that the file was something that he should not be sharing, but there have been cases where the DMCA is being used to prevent legal files - in a case like that the user must be told who is complaining so that they can challenge the DMCA complaint.

  21. Questions: on Security Evaluation of the Tesla Model S · · Score: 1

    * Can the owner switch off the remote control/access to their car ?

    * Can the owner switch off the remote control/access to their car by Tesla as well as the owner ?

    * 6 character password. Is that the minimum length or the length it must be (Ie can't set a longer one) ?

    * It mentions an iPhone app. What if I don't have (or want) an iPhone ?

    * What cars made by companies other than Tesla have similar systems ?

  22. Fitted because they were needed! on Tesla Model S Gets Titanium Underbody Shield, Aluminum Deflector Plates · · Score: 1

    This is what the rest of the automotive industry will say, then: "This shows what we have said all along, these things are unsafe.". These (misleading) headlines will be quoted all over - "case proven, Tesla is not safe".

    It would be amusing to see them held to the same standards - which the regulator could, nay - should, do.

  23. Re:Debunked. on North Korea: Male University Students Required To Get Kim Jong-un Haircuts · · Score: 1

    from the Globe and Mail article:

    The campaign claimed long hair hampers brain activity by taking oxygen away from nerves in the head. It didn’t explain why women were allowed to grow long hair.

    Someone has a good understanding of biology :-)

  24. Re:scientists and engineers don't want leap second on Introducing a Calendar System For the Information Age · · Score: 1

    They screw everything up.

    Ignoring leap seconds just pushes the problem to our great-geat grandchilren. By the time that they have to deal with it the problem will be even worse. Far better to fix your program to cope with leap seconds than leave future generations a problem as your legacy. Don't be lazy.

  25. Re:It's not arrogant, it's correct. on AT&T Exec Calls Netflix "Arrogant" For Expecting Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    I think that everyone agrees, that. The point is who pays for the carrying of data between the providers. OK: what I pay my ISP should also pay for them to fetch/send my bytes onwards in the Internet as well. I will cost my ISP less if I choose to download something from a local mirror than if I grab it from the other side of the world. Netflix are aware of that and have the Open Connect Content Delivery Network, but that won't solve all the probelms.

    Between them Netflix and YouTube made up more than 50 percent of peak downstream Internet traffic in N America, so it is a significant issue.