One big problem with T-mobile's unlimited data plans is that they have hard (and very low) caps on roaming data usage. My wife and I are currently on vacation in an area outside T-mobile's normal coverage (though other carriers have good presence here), and have had our phones' usefulness severely limited due to this. They don't just throttle in this situation, and won't even let us pay them to increase the roaming cap to something reasonable. We're just cut off except when we can get wi-fi.
Most distributions (ie the archlinux one you linked to) digitally sign their packages with private keys, so the people who compromised kernel.org wouldn't be able to tamper with them without causing verification failures by the package management system.
One huge problem could be downloadable ISOs for live images or installer DVDs. Since you are booting up your system with them, there would be no reliable automatic signature verification.
I downloaded a Centos-6 ISO from the kernel.org mirror just the other day, and broke out in a cold sweat when I saw this story. However, Centos and just about everyone else publishes checksums of their ISOs. I compared my download against the checksum, and, to my relief, it matched.
It would be wise if everyone compared checksums immediately after downloading something like this. Alternately, you can use a protocol like BitTorrent for the download, which compares checksums automatically.
I often wonder what would happen if a group of nerds..like ourselves.. decided to start our own root DNS.. I would suspect that it would be shut down by the FCC in short order under some new or trumped up mangled misinterpretation of some law.
Alternative root servers have existed for years. The largest is probaby OpenNIC.
I'm not an expert on crypto, but it seems to me that, for instance, SHA-512/256 would not produce the same digest from the same input as SHA-256. I just conducted the following test on the linux command line:
The first is the SHA-512 hash of the word "hello" (with spaces inserted to defeat the slashdot lameness filter) and the second is the hash for SHA-256. I don't see any way to truncate the the 512-bit output and get one that matches the 256-bit output. Therefore SHA-512/256 would not be compatible with plain SHA-256.
I don't see much utility in these new algorithms. Since we would already be calculating the 512-bit hash, why not just use it instead of truncating it? I suppose there are a few situations where for externally imposed reasons you just need a value of a certain length, but that's about it.
They can't dump the responsibility on the patient, especially by shoving an informed consent form under his hand in the 15 minutes before surgery.
Oh yes they can (legally speaking)
This is a very questionable statement, and depends a lot on the locale and the situations of the case. Contractually waiving your rights is something that the courts often frown upon.
Here is my experience. I live in California, and my old apartment was accidentally burned down by a maintenance worker who was not qualified to do the task he had been assigned. The landlord refused to reimburse me for my lost property, because I had signed a lease waiving my right to damages in such a case. I contacted a lawyer, who told me that one can't contract away responsibility for one's own negligence. The landlord was clearly negligent in the case, and the waiver clause in the lease would not hold up in court. I hired the lawyer, and we successfully sued the landlord
Signatures written on paper are not all that helpful...Where they actually are accurate, however, is when written on pressure sensative pads (such as those seen on new-fandangled credit card swipers)
This may be slightly offtopic (but hopefully interesting to the slashdot crowd), so I apologize in advance. I've been trying to figure out how to use electronic signature pads to verify job authorizations, and haven't been able to come up with a way that they seem airtight to me if a customer denies issuing the authorization. Perhaps you or another reader can enlighten me.
I can record the data coming in from the signature pad and associate it with the job ticket in our database easily enough. However, if the customer denies authorizing the work, and we show them the signature data, they can just claim we copied it from another ticket. That seems like a reasonable defense to me, and one that very well might hold up in court if it came to that
I've tried to think of various ways to hash the signature data with unique information from a job ticket, but can't think of anything that can get around the fact that we have access to the raw data that comes from the signature pad, and can do what we want with it. Therefore, I don't see how they can be used for anything like signing a contract.
Of course, a signature on paper (which is what we currently do) can be forged, but there are ways to tell that have been mentioned elsewhere in this story.
I think pygtk is great. In fact, as I write this I'm taking a break from the cross-platform application I maintain as one of my job duties.
However, some people don't like python as much as you and I. For instance, they may prefer not to use a dynamically-typed language or need something with better performance. Also, I don't see why pygtk would be any more cross-platform than C# using the gtk bindings. At least in theory, both should work on many platforms, and look identical (since they would both use gtk widgets).
I've been deeply skeptical of Mono since it's inception, because of the patent issues hanging over it, so I see the latest happenings here as a positive thing. I'm not likely to abandon python any time soon, but more choice is a good thing for those of us who like using Free software but still need things to run under Windows.
I've been looking too, but I don't see it anywhere. Have they ever released 64-bit versions on the Mozilla/Firefox website? I've always just gotten the version supplied by my distro.
Generally, to teach HS and below, the only degree allowable is an education degree. A PHD in math will not be allowed to teach algebra, and a Nobel prive winning physicist will not be allowed to teach physics, unless of course they additionally have a BA in education.
Where do you live? My wife is a high school English teacher, and has a degree in English. I have a friend who teaches elementary school who double-majored in Psychology and Italian. Here in California, teachers who teach specialized subjects (English, math, foreign languages, etc) generally have a degree in the subject they teach, while teachers who don't specialize (elementary school teachers, for example) might have a degree in education. There is a lot of flexibility, though.
All teachers here, except in rare circumstances, have to have teaching credentials, though. These are usually acquired after the bachelor's degree by completing graduate-level coursework that can be finished in a year, as well as taking an exam and getting some real classroom experience (usually through student teaching). The credential is not a degree, but it does require continuing education, and many teachers end up eventually getting a Master's in education due to all the additional education classes they need to take.
My wife did have a friend at her former school who ran into a problem similar to what you're describing. He was a 7th and 8th grade biology teacher, but had a doctorate in some branch of biology from Oxford University. Aside from having a solid background in the science, he was an excellent teacher, having been selected as Teacher of the Year for the district. However, he received notice that he wasn't "highly qualified" for his position and would have to take additional classes to keep his job. Apparently due to some bureaucratic snafu, the powers-that-be didn't recognize his Oxford degree because it wasn't a PhD, but a DPhil, DSc, or something similar that we never see in America. They couldn't be reasoned with, though, so he ended wasting a bunch of time taking classes that he had *taught* when he was a grad student.
Notice anything striking there? Of all my "Education" professors, none had taught in a non-college classroom in the last two decades. Some never had. What made them *qualified* to teach me? A PhD in Education. Did they have anything useful to teach? No. How could they, when their entire background was full-time immersion in college-level educational philosophy? My "Education" professors were philosophers,(PhD) not teachers.
My wife, who is a teacher, would definitely agree with you. She often refers to the following quote: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, teach teachers."
evolution is more concerned about the species as a whole.
There are many evolutionary biologists who would disagree with this statement, probably most of them. Read on wikipedia about group selection for more information.
Of the apps you listed, only Tomboy is an official Gnome app. The others are just third-party apps written using the gnome libs and Mono. Furthermore, there are (in my opinion) better gtk or gnome apps in each category that that don't use Mono. I don't see how this makes Mono "firmly entrenched" in Gnome.
For the record, I am a long time user of gnome, but am deeply skeptical about Mono, and avoid it like the plague. This attitude seems to be fairly common in the gnome community in my experience.
Also, to keep this message on topic, I don't use QT or even have it installed on my systems, but I think this license change is a smart idea, and I hope it increases QT usage in areas where it makes sense.
Oddly enough, Qt and KDE are the "free" ones now, where as Gnome is now firmly entrenched with Mono.
Do you have any evidence of this? To the best of my knowledge, the Gnome community is deeply ambivalent about Mono. There are very few official Gnome apps that use it.
"if you avoid using programs from another desktop"
Which is just not possible. Where is the CD burning program in GNOME that beats K3B? Where is the music player that beats Amarok? In the other direction, where is the office suite that beats OpenOffice.org? You cannot avoid mixing GTK and Qt apps on a desktop without hurting yourself.
Personally, I don't really like K3B. I use Gnome Baker and am perfectly happy with it. Amarok seems decent enough, but I prefer Quod Libet, a player that uses gtk, gstreamer, and python.
I don't mean any disrespect to the hackers who have put a lot of hard work into KDE/QT apps, but I don't even have QT installed on my system any more and don't feel like I'm missing anything. Likewise, I'm sure someone so inclined could do without gnome and gtk. It may be hard, though, to find an adequate substitute for OpenOffice, if one needs that sort of app.
Having a stock option is not the same thing as having actual stock. An option is just the right to buy stock at a predetermined price at some point in the future. As a rule, you only exercise that option when you actually want to sell the stock and take your money, since there is little to no upside to exercising the option and then holding on to the stock. Furthermore, all options that haven't been exercised already are likely worthless, since the stock price has come down so much, and will probably never be exercised.
However, Microsoft stopped giving out stock options in 2003, and started giving direct stock grants. I'm not sure, but I suspect that these are non-voting shares. Microsoft's executives and board could not care less about the wishes of non-voting stockholders. I suppose these stockholders could organize a class-action lawsuit against the board, claiming they are not living up to their fiduciary duties. If things get bad enough where this is likely to happen, though, Microsoft will have much bigger problems to worry about.
Imagine a utopia where nobody needs to work - but then how do you decide how to allocate resources (most likely some resources would still be scarce - such as living space)?Imagine a world with 100% unemployment...
There is a lengthy short story (novella?) by Marshall Brain (the founder of howstuffworks.com) called Manna that addresses this question, and is available free online. It covers two of the possible outcomes: one of them quite good, and the other very bad. It is a worthwhile read; though it is not great from a plot or character-development point of view, the ideas are interesting.
Compatability problems? Where are these problems you speak of?
Here's one example I came across at work today: I received an upgrade CD for UPS WorldShip 2008, which as you can probaby guess from the name is shipping software developed by UPS. I imagine a great many businesses who do a moderate amount of shipping use this.
On a label directly over the CD were the following words:
Important: UPS WorldShip 2008 version 10.0 does not support Windows Vista Operating System
Now, this is probably due to poor programming practices on UPS's part, but it still means I can't upgrade my users to Vista because they need this software
My wife is a teacher in LAUSD. Her paycheck has been screwed up on a number of occasions. She no longer knows how much she is supposed to be paid, because her salary is now different every month. The worst case was when the district deposited her check (direct deposit into the checking account), then withdrew every penny of it the next day with no warning. Why did they do this? No one has been able to explain it. The following day, they deposited the exact same amount back into the account. Even when we have the money in the account now, we feel like we can't touch it.
Since this has affected us personally, and since I'm an I.T. professional, I've been following this pretty closely. Here is some more information that wasn't talked about in the article:
David Brewer, the LAUSD superintendent, has no experience in education. As far as I can tell, he has little experience in business too. He was a career military man, and probably is used to things like the fabled $600 toilet seat, $300 screw drivers, etc. To be fair, the problems started before he took office, but he has been woefully unable to deal with this situation. To make matters worse, despite his inexperience, he makes even more money than the last superintendent.
There is suspicion of corruption in the contracting process. Deloitte, the company who got the job, were not able to get this contract legally, because they were too expensive. Someone in the district hired a lobbyist who got our state legislature to pass a law changing this. The day after the law changed, Deloitte was hired. Through an amazing coincidence, the aformentioned lobbyist is also employed by Deloitte. I think that as things progress, we'll find people in the district with other ties to Deloitte.
The last contract negotiations between the teachers union and the district was very ugly. The union hired a real firebrand to negotiotiate, there was nearly a strike, lots of inflammatory stuff was said in the media, and lots of bad blood was created. Eventually the district was forced to give in to most of the union demands. I wouldn't be surprised if the district is dragging their heels on getting this fixed simply out of spite.
Aside from that, the slowness also seems due to everyone going into CYA mode, probably because there is plenty of blame to assign to all parties involved. I suspect that when everything comes out, we'll see that not only was Deloitte incompetent in managing this project, but also that the district did not give proper specifications of what they needed. After all, the important part for Deloitte and their cronies in the district (the part that needed lots of thought, effort, and creativity) was figuring out how extract as much money from the taxpayers as possible. As for the actual project, who cares?
I have a degree in anthropology. I recall some mathematical work...I didn't really understand it, but it was highly mathematical.
Typical anthropology major (I kid, I kid. I have a degree in anthropology, too).
I believe I've read the same or similar material. Here is a little more detailed explanation:
Population geneticists have observed more genetic variability within the African population than in other areas. This by itself doesn't mean anything, though. It could just be that the environment in Africa in the old days was pleasant enough that mutant genes had a decent chance of survival, while harsher environments in paleolithic Europe, Asia, etc could weed out genes much more efficiently through very vigorous natural selection.
There is another piece to the puzzle, though. Not only does Africa have a huge amount of variability, but that variability encompasses nearly all the variability found in other places as well. That is, the gene pools of Europe, Asia, etc are basically sub-sets of the African gene pool. Consider the following scenarios that could explain this:
The populations in various locations split apart, and evolved somewhat independently. By luck or some unknown process, those new mutations arising in Europe and Asia also arose in Africa. However, those arising in Europe did not arise in Asia, and vice versa.
The populations of the various continents split apart, but there is sufficient gene flow for mutations originating in one part of the world to spread to another. By coincidence or some process I'm not familiar with, the mutations arising in Africa spread to Europe and Asia, and those arising elsewhere spread to Africa. However, Europe and Asia have less genetic exchange, even with Africa acting as an intermediary.
Modern humans developed almost exclusively in Africa, fairly recently in geological time. They spread through the world, replacing earlier populations with little if any interbreeding. The migrating populations lost some of their genetic variability through natural selection in their new environments, or through forces such as the founder effect.
If think if you put this into mathematical language, you'd find option #3 is definitely the most likely. I wouldn't call it conclusive, though. After all, options #1 and #2 could be correct, if we discover some unknown processes that make them work without resorting to blind luck. In the meantime, though, my bet is on #3.
The Right to Privacy must be in the same secret section of the US Constitution (I assume you mean US Constitution?) as the Right to Free Choice and the Right to Party...
Secret section? It's in Amendment IV:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated...
Basically, no one can search me or my stuff without a really good reason. I don't know how you could construe that to be anything but a right to privacy. How far this extends is a matter of debate though. For instance, my papers are definitely protected, but is a paper I send through the mail? A conversation I had in my home would certainly be protected, but one held in a public place would not. What about a phone conversation? Difficult to say, since phones didn't exist when the Bill of Rights was written.
What I'm getting at, though, is just because the right to privacy is a bit ambiguous in the Constitution doesn't mean it isn't enumerated there at all.
Bloggers claim they want to be taken seriously as legitimate news media. Yet they go and do things like slip paid for advertising in with the rest of their content.
The "legitimate news media" do this too. Paul Graham wrote an interesting article on this a while back. Yeah, I agree that its unethical (I really hate those radio ads too, by the way), but it is so pervasive in the media business that you have to take anything you read anywhere with a grain of salt.
The ideal of an impartial, unbiased news media that reports only the cold hard facts does not really exist in the real world, and never has. Everyone has a point of view that will bias their reports. Much of that bias is fairly benign and unintentional, while some is egregiously self-serving or greedy, but it is always there. We should read everything with a critical eye, including the original story, Paul Graham's article that I linked to, and especially my own post:)
Slashdot Mirror
One big problem with T-mobile's unlimited data plans is that they have hard (and very low) caps on roaming data usage. My wife and I are currently on vacation in an area outside T-mobile's normal coverage (though other carriers have good presence here), and have had our phones' usefulness severely limited due to this. They don't just throttle in this situation, and won't even let us pay them to increase the roaming cap to something reasonable. We're just cut off except when we can get wi-fi.
Most distributions (ie the archlinux one you linked to) digitally sign their packages with private keys, so the people who compromised kernel.org wouldn't be able to tamper with them without causing verification failures by the package management system.
One huge problem could be downloadable ISOs for live images or installer DVDs. Since you are booting up your system with them, there would be no reliable automatic signature verification.
I downloaded a Centos-6 ISO from the kernel.org mirror just the other day, and broke out in a cold sweat when I saw this story. However, Centos and just about everyone else publishes checksums of their ISOs. I compared my download against the checksum, and, to my relief, it matched.
It would be wise if everyone compared checksums immediately after downloading something like this. Alternately, you can use a protocol like BitTorrent for the download, which compares checksums automatically.
Alternative root servers have existed for years. The largest is probaby OpenNIC.
I'm not an expert on crypto, but it seems to me that, for instance, SHA-512/256 would not produce the same digest from the same input as SHA-256. I just conducted the following test on the linux command line:
The first is the SHA-512 hash of the word "hello" (with spaces inserted to defeat the slashdot lameness filter) and the second is the hash for SHA-256. I don't see any way to truncate the the 512-bit output and get one that matches the 256-bit output. Therefore SHA-512/256 would not be compatible with plain SHA-256.
I don't see much utility in these new algorithms. Since we would already be calculating the 512-bit hash, why not just use it instead of truncating it? I suppose there are a few situations where for externally imposed reasons you just need a value of a certain length, but that's about it.
This is a very questionable statement, and depends a lot on the locale and the situations of the case. Contractually waiving your rights is something that the courts often frown upon.
Here is my experience. I live in California, and my old apartment was accidentally burned down by a maintenance worker who was not qualified to do the task he had been assigned. The landlord refused to reimburse me for my lost property, because I had signed a lease waiving my right to damages in such a case. I contacted a lawyer, who told me that one can't contract away responsibility for one's own negligence. The landlord was clearly negligent in the case, and the waiver clause in the lease would not hold up in court. I hired the lawyer, and we successfully sued the landlord
That's why one of my friends calls the place Taco Bowel. It's much more descriptive than the commonly-heard Taco Hell.
This may be slightly offtopic (but hopefully interesting to the slashdot crowd), so I apologize in advance. I've been trying to figure out how to use electronic signature pads to verify job authorizations, and haven't been able to come up with a way that they seem airtight to me if a customer denies issuing the authorization. Perhaps you or another reader can enlighten me.
I can record the data coming in from the signature pad and associate it with the job ticket in our database easily enough. However, if the customer denies authorizing the work, and we show them the signature data, they can just claim we copied it from another ticket. That seems like a reasonable defense to me, and one that very well might hold up in court if it came to that
I've tried to think of various ways to hash the signature data with unique information from a job ticket, but can't think of anything that can get around the fact that we have access to the raw data that comes from the signature pad, and can do what we want with it. Therefore, I don't see how they can be used for anything like signing a contract.
Of course, a signature on paper (which is what we currently do) can be forged, but there are ways to tell that have been mentioned elsewhere in this story.
Please ignore, posting to undo mis-moderation. Seems that slashdot's javascript is a little trigger happy.
I think pygtk is great. In fact, as I write this I'm taking a break from the cross-platform application I maintain as one of my job duties.
However, some people don't like python as much as you and I. For instance, they may prefer not to use a dynamically-typed language or need something with better performance. Also, I don't see why pygtk would be any more cross-platform than C# using the gtk bindings. At least in theory, both should work on many platforms, and look identical (since they would both use gtk widgets).
I've been deeply skeptical of Mono since it's inception, because of the patent issues hanging over it, so I see the latest happenings here as a positive thing. I'm not likely to abandon python any time soon, but more choice is a good thing for those of us who like using Free software but still need things to run under Windows.
I've been looking too, but I don't see it anywhere. Have they ever released 64-bit versions on the Mozilla/Firefox website? I've always just gotten the version supplied by my distro.
Where do you live? My wife is a high school English teacher, and has a degree in English. I have a friend who teaches elementary school who double-majored in Psychology and Italian. Here in California, teachers who teach specialized subjects (English, math, foreign languages, etc) generally have a degree in the subject they teach, while teachers who don't specialize (elementary school teachers, for example) might have a degree in education. There is a lot of flexibility, though.
All teachers here, except in rare circumstances, have to have teaching credentials, though. These are usually acquired after the bachelor's degree by completing graduate-level coursework that can be finished in a year, as well as taking an exam and getting some real classroom experience (usually through student teaching). The credential is not a degree, but it does require continuing education, and many teachers end up eventually getting a Master's in education due to all the additional education classes they need to take.
My wife did have a friend at her former school who ran into a problem similar to what you're describing. He was a 7th and 8th grade biology teacher, but had a doctorate in some branch of biology from Oxford University. Aside from having a solid background in the science, he was an excellent teacher, having been selected as Teacher of the Year for the district. However, he received notice that he wasn't "highly qualified" for his position and would have to take additional classes to keep his job. Apparently due to some bureaucratic snafu, the powers-that-be didn't recognize his Oxford degree because it wasn't a PhD, but a DPhil, DSc, or something similar that we never see in America. They couldn't be reasoned with, though, so he ended wasting a bunch of time taking classes that he had *taught* when he was a grad student.
My wife, who is a teacher, would definitely agree with you. She often refers to the following quote: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, teach teachers."
There are many evolutionary biologists who would disagree with this statement, probably most of them. Read on wikipedia about group selection for more information.
Of the apps you listed, only Tomboy is an official Gnome app. The others are just third-party apps written using the gnome libs and Mono. Furthermore, there are (in my opinion) better gtk or gnome apps in each category that that don't use Mono. I don't see how this makes Mono "firmly entrenched" in Gnome.
For the record, I am a long time user of gnome, but am deeply skeptical about Mono, and avoid it like the plague. This attitude seems to be fairly common in the gnome community in my experience.
Also, to keep this message on topic, I don't use QT or even have it installed on my systems, but I think this license change is a smart idea, and I hope it increases QT usage in areas where it makes sense.
Do you have any evidence of this? To the best of my knowledge, the Gnome community is deeply ambivalent about Mono. There are very few official Gnome apps that use it.
Personally, I don't really like K3B. I use Gnome Baker and am perfectly happy with it. Amarok seems decent enough, but I prefer Quod Libet, a player that uses gtk, gstreamer, and python.
I don't mean any disrespect to the hackers who have put a lot of hard work into KDE/QT apps, but I don't even have QT installed on my system any more and don't feel like I'm missing anything. Likewise, I'm sure someone so inclined could do without gnome and gtk. It may be hard, though, to find an adequate substitute for OpenOffice, if one needs that sort of app.
Having a stock option is not the same thing as having actual stock. An option is just the right to buy stock at a predetermined price at some point in the future. As a rule, you only exercise that option when you actually want to sell the stock and take your money, since there is little to no upside to exercising the option and then holding on to the stock. Furthermore, all options that haven't been exercised already are likely worthless, since the stock price has come down so much, and will probably never be exercised.
However, Microsoft stopped giving out stock options in 2003, and started giving direct stock grants. I'm not sure, but I suspect that these are non-voting shares. Microsoft's executives and board could not care less about the wishes of non-voting stockholders. I suppose these stockholders could organize a class-action lawsuit against the board, claiming they are not living up to their fiduciary duties. If things get bad enough where this is likely to happen, though, Microsoft will have much bigger problems to worry about.
There is a lengthy short story (novella?) by Marshall Brain (the founder of howstuffworks.com) called Manna that addresses this question, and is available free online. It covers two of the possible outcomes: one of them quite good, and the other very bad. It is a worthwhile read; though it is not great from a plot or character-development point of view, the ideas are interesting.
Of course. You have to be able to see well enough to enter your PIN number, right?
Here's one example I came across at work today: I received an upgrade CD for UPS WorldShip 2008, which as you can probaby guess from the name is shipping software developed by UPS. I imagine a great many businesses who do a moderate amount of shipping use this.
On a label directly over the CD were the following words:
Now, this is probably due to poor programming practices on UPS's part, but it still means I can't upgrade my users to Vista because they need this software
Maybe they'll still let us onto the plane like this too.
(Warning: link may be considered NSFW).
My wife is a teacher in LAUSD. Her paycheck has been screwed up on a number of occasions. She no longer knows how much she is supposed to be paid, because her salary is now different every month. The worst case was when the district deposited her check (direct deposit into the checking account), then withdrew every penny of it the next day with no warning. Why did they do this? No one has been able to explain it. The following day, they deposited the exact same amount back into the account. Even when we have the money in the account now, we feel like we can't touch it.
Since this has affected us personally, and since I'm an I.T. professional, I've been following this pretty closely. Here is some more information that wasn't talked about in the article:
Typical anthropology major (I kid, I kid. I have a degree in anthropology, too).
I believe I've read the same or similar material. Here is a little more detailed explanation:
Population geneticists have observed more genetic variability within the African population than in other areas. This by itself doesn't mean anything, though. It could just be that the environment in Africa in the old days was pleasant enough that mutant genes had a decent chance of survival, while harsher environments in paleolithic Europe, Asia, etc could weed out genes much more efficiently through very vigorous natural selection.
There is another piece to the puzzle, though. Not only does Africa have a huge amount of variability, but that variability encompasses nearly all the variability found in other places as well. That is, the gene pools of Europe, Asia, etc are basically sub-sets of the African gene pool. Consider the following scenarios that could explain this:
If think if you put this into mathematical language, you'd find option #3 is definitely the most likely. I wouldn't call it conclusive, though. After all, options #1 and #2 could be correct, if we discover some unknown processes that make them work without resorting to blind luck. In the meantime, though, my bet is on #3.
Secret section? It's in Amendment IV:
Basically, no one can search me or my stuff without a really good reason. I don't know how you could construe that to be anything but a right to privacy. How far this extends is a matter of debate though. For instance, my papers are definitely protected, but is a paper I send through the mail? A conversation I had in my home would certainly be protected, but one held in a public place would not. What about a phone conversation? Difficult to say, since phones didn't exist when the Bill of Rights was written.
What I'm getting at, though, is just because the right to privacy is a bit ambiguous in the Constitution doesn't mean it isn't enumerated there at all.
The "legitimate news media" do this too. Paul Graham wrote an interesting article on this a while back. Yeah, I agree that its unethical (I really hate those radio ads too, by the way), but it is so pervasive in the media business that you have to take anything you read anywhere with a grain of salt.
The ideal of an impartial, unbiased news media that reports only the cold hard facts does not really exist in the real world, and never has. Everyone has a point of view that will bias their reports. Much of that bias is fairly benign and unintentional, while some is egregiously self-serving or greedy, but it is always there. We should read everything with a critical eye, including the original story, Paul Graham's article that I linked to, and especially my own post :)