Why would anyone sell, or for that matter buy, a smartphone without "unlimited" internet usage?
I use quotes because here in the UK mobile providers have "fair use" policies are somewhat coy about what that means. From what I understand you'd have to exceed about 40GiB/mo for a month or two to fall afoul though.
Apple has a very good thing going with developers and OS X
And an even better thing going with the iPad and the iPhone.
If Apple decides that it's more profitable to have a locked down desktop that can only install apps from the app store then they'll do it. It wouldn't surprise me if they locked down iMac and left the Mac Pro for people who want to use professional applications.
Having said that, why wouldn't Apple put Final Cut on the app store if that's how they wanted their desktops to be run? If Apple decided to lock down, who's to say Adobe wouldn't just go with the flow and distribute Photoshop that way too?
The irony about the latest incarnation of DNF is that this time, it really was almost done. 3DR had finally hired someone from outside to manage the project and stop the feature creep and, by all accounts from people who'd seen the latest incarnation, it would've been a kick-ass Duke Nukem game.
Unfortunately the financial armageddon meant that 3DR needed some cash (they were probably funding DNF through various investment schemes) and so they were at the mercy of T2. Take Two decided that the Duke IP was worth more than just helping 3DR and so decided to screw them over. That incident a few years ago where George Broussard told T2 to "shut the fuck up" probably didn't help matters either.
This piece on Wired is probably the best write-up of the whole saga I've seen.
"the odds are billions to one against this being someone else".
I've heard odds of 1,000,000:1 for DNA testing here in the UK. That means that there are about 61 other people in this country who will match me on a DNA test.
DNA testing should only be used in conjunction with other evidence. When fingerprint evidence started being used everyone thought that fingerprints were unique and so therefore a match means you must've done it. We now know that getting a good print and matching it to records isn't an exact process so often the defence will have their own fingerprint experts try and refute the prosecution's interpretation.
What this means is that if there's fingerprints, DNA, a motive and a witness seeing someone of your description fleeing the scene then you did it. Just one of those, however, and it's not beyond reasonable doubt.
If your friend wants that level of realism then he shouldn't be playing COD. I'd suggest he tries the excellent ArmA games, for all their faults they're the best infantry simulators out there.
Which would be great it electronic devices weren't banned in planes.
Re:120fps vs 60fps is like night and day
on
Framerates Matter
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· Score: 1
Stroke your epeen much? People used to play Quake just fine at 30fps, and still do. The main reason why Quake feels snappier at higher framerates is because a higher framerate allows you to run a bit quicker and jump a bit higher. That's why speedruns are done looking at the ground!
Re:120 and 240Hz TVs would like to have a word...
on
Framerates Matter
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· Score: 1
The reason films look nice on 120 or 240Hz screens is because you can show each frame exactly 5 (or 10) times. You don't have to do a pulldown like on 50 or 60Hz screens.
That would lead to an insane level of judicial bureaucracy. I'm against the war on drugs and would much rather police have much more limited powers than they do now, but even I'm prepared to accept that the police should be entitled to search your person on the event of your arrest.
I'm glad police, in the USA at least, have to have a warrant to search your phone though. I don't think they should have the power to do that unless you're suspected of some crime involving your phone, in which case they'd have to get a warrant at some point anyway so they could just make it part of that.
No. If Apple is expecting technicians to be working on dusty machines, they should supply dust masks. The residue you get from cigarette smoke isn't harmful unless you're constantly breathing in huge clouds of it, but then again breathing in large amounts of dust isn't generally a good idea for your health.
A simple dust mask of the type you'd use to work on wood would be more than enough protection. They can be bought in bulk for pennies each and can also be reused.
This obligation to their employees line is total bs. The problem is that smokers PCs are a bitch to clean out and so they're refusing to service them because it costs them more. There's also Jobs' famous aversion to smoking; this is just a case of the glorious leader dictating how people should live their lives.
You may as well prosecute people who don't clean themselves properly. In a public place, cigarette smoke is just a bad smell (to non smokers!). Second hand smoke is only a risk when you're exposed to it constantly, i.e. working around lots of smokers or living with a smoker.
There is no health risk from being stood next to a smoker on a street. You're breathing more carcinogens from the cars driving down the road.
I'm not aware of any way to configure sudo to require the root password. In fact, sudo was developed to solve the need to give every user who might require elevated privs at some point from requiring the root password; configuring it in that manner would defeat the point of it!
If you want users to give the root password to run an elevated command then you're best just running 'su -c'.
That's utterly ridiculous. I bought a cheap second hand 120GB drive off ebay for half the price of a new drive. After a while I noticed that it wasn't actually a genuine 120GB drive, it was an off the shelf drive that had been reflashed with the official 360 HDD firmware and placed in a standard 20GB drive case. I'm still on live just fine.
If they had nefarious fan detection and banning routines, I'm fairly certain they'd have managed to do the same for the unofficial HDDs out there too.
The only detectable modifications are the drive firmware mods, that's what they were banning people for.
You need to connect to live in order to get title updates and use netflix. You're not allowed to connect to live with a modified system.
How is that difficult to understand?
Also, allowing any modified system threatens the stability of live. If they allowed hacked boxes to connect in certain ways then those machines could potentially find exploits to reacquire the denied features. MS would have to do QA using all the various hacked firmwares and homebrew tools that have been released for 360!
You'd have to be a total idiot to expect them to do that.
No. Tbh, now that MS is making money on 360 hardware, I think they quite like forcing pirates to buy a new console every 6 months or so. Given how MS has gone about enforcing their hardware protection this generation, I can't see how pirating is really that much cheaper than buying original.
That's because it's possible to use hacks to artificially inflate your gamerscore. It's quite right that MS should be booting pirates off their network in this manner.
That blog with discussion on this story posted an update from that McIntyre saying "Earlier today, CRU cancelled all existing passwords. Actions speaking loudly.". What kind of impartial, sceptical scientist peddles that sort of innuendo? CRU have clearly experienced a major breach in their security, resetting all passwords is hopefully just the first step they're going to take to secure their network.
No wonder there's a CRU email where somebody commented they'd rather destroy all their data than release it to McIntyre. I have no idea who's who in the climate change denier world but simply from what I've read of his comments around this incident, he sounds like a kook.
However, this does point to questions that nobody would otherwise know to ask.
The classic Glen Beck "I'm just asking questions!" line. What's the point in exposing laymen to raw data out of context? How could you expect them to even formulate a sensible question?
Scientists scrutinise each other all the time via peer review. The fact that all serious climate scientists believe man made global warming is the best model to explain their data is all us non-climate scientists really need to know.
Root is fairly meaningless these days. If you can compromise the user (say via a flash vulnerability) then it's trivial to have your malware run as part of the users login session. Odds are they won't even notice!
Not that that fact makes me feel better about this fedora policy. It just feels wrong somehow...
Sudo doesn't take your root password, it takes your password. Also, I'm not aware that anybody with a clue has complained about UAC whilst cheering about sudo. UAC is actually a step up from sudo because it uses a secure input driver to stop a programme clicking OK automatically whereas with sudo there's no equivalent protection from keyloggers.
The only real advantage of sudo over UAC is that you can user sudoers to limit which executables normal users can run whereas with UAC you either have admin rights for everything or nothing, although I suspect you can mess around with user rights in Windows to give much finer grained capability permission.
The only issue with UAC is how annoying the prompts can be and that's because of badly written software that assumes it has to have full admin rights. UAC prompts happen less these days though.
So yea, at least check the facts before posting. Must troll harder!
Yea, realised that wasn't clear after posting. I meant to say "stopping such plots before they reach the airport."
I don't think it's possible to stop someone of reasonable intelligence from bringing down a plane once they've arrived at an airport. I don't mind metal detectors and baggage x-rays - that's just part of the standard idiot filter that's been effective for ages - but no liquids? Taking shoes off? Please.
The only banned lighters are petrol based lighters like Zippos; Butane based lighters are completely OK. I went from Heathrow -> JFK -> Miami -> Jamaica (booked three days in advance, that route was cheapest at last minute!) and had no problems carrying lighters into the cabin.
Curiously my lighters got taken off me coming back out of Kingston. I did half-heartedly point out that I'd been through a UK and two US airports without any trouble but, as we all know, once airport security make up their mind then you either agree or don't fly.
I bought another cheap disposable butane lighter in Miami (straight back to Heathrow on the return at least) and had no problem taking it airside.
Laptop batteries have protective circuits to prevent rapid discharge and eliminate that risk
I bet you could open a laptop battery and bypass those circuits, then you'd just have the positive and negative poles connecting straight to the contacts on the outside of the battery. After that it's just a matter of shorting the battery out.
The advantage of doing that rather than just filling a laptop battery shell with other more powerful explosives is that, if done with skill, it'd look just like a normal laptop battery in the X-Ray machines.
I seriously doubt Islamic-fascist terrorists have failed to think of this. The reason why no more planes have gone down is because either nobody wants to suicide bomb planes or because our security services are doing a good job of stopping such plots. If anyone really wants to bring down a plane they can and nobody can stop them, security theatre be damned!
Slashdot Mirror
Why would anyone sell, or for that matter buy, a smartphone without "unlimited" internet usage?
I use quotes because here in the UK mobile providers have "fair use" policies are somewhat coy about what that means. From what I understand you'd have to exceed about 40GiB/mo for a month or two to fall afoul though.
Apple has a very good thing going with developers and OS X
And an even better thing going with the iPad and the iPhone.
If Apple decides that it's more profitable to have a locked down desktop that can only install apps from the app store then they'll do it. It wouldn't surprise me if they locked down iMac and left the Mac Pro for people who want to use professional applications.
Having said that, why wouldn't Apple put Final Cut on the app store if that's how they wanted their desktops to be run? If Apple decided to lock down, who's to say Adobe wouldn't just go with the flow and distribute Photoshop that way too?
The irony about the latest incarnation of DNF is that this time, it really was almost done. 3DR had finally hired someone from outside to manage the project and stop the feature creep and, by all accounts from people who'd seen the latest incarnation, it would've been a kick-ass Duke Nukem game.
Unfortunately the financial armageddon meant that 3DR needed some cash (they were probably funding DNF through various investment schemes) and so they were at the mercy of T2. Take Two decided that the Duke IP was worth more than just helping 3DR and so decided to screw them over. That incident a few years ago where George Broussard told T2 to "shut the fuck up" probably didn't help matters either.
This piece on Wired is probably the best write-up of the whole saga I've seen.
"the odds are billions to one against this being someone else".
I've heard odds of 1,000,000:1 for DNA testing here in the UK. That means that there are about 61 other people in this country who will match me on a DNA test.
DNA testing should only be used in conjunction with other evidence. When fingerprint evidence started being used everyone thought that fingerprints were unique and so therefore a match means you must've done it. We now know that getting a good print and matching it to records isn't an exact process so often the defence will have their own fingerprint experts try and refute the prosecution's interpretation.
What this means is that if there's fingerprints, DNA, a motive and a witness seeing someone of your description fleeing the scene then you did it. Just one of those, however, and it's not beyond reasonable doubt.
If your friend wants that level of realism then he shouldn't be playing COD. I'd suggest he tries the excellent ArmA games, for all their faults they're the best infantry simulators out there.
So MGS4 was 429496729600 bits in size then?
Which would be great it electronic devices weren't banned in planes.
Stroke your epeen much? People used to play Quake just fine at 30fps, and still do. The main reason why Quake feels snappier at higher framerates is because a higher framerate allows you to run a bit quicker and jump a bit higher. That's why speedruns are done looking at the ground!
The reason films look nice on 120 or 240Hz screens is because you can show each frame exactly 5 (or 10) times. You don't have to do a pulldown like on 50 or 60Hz screens.
That would lead to an insane level of judicial bureaucracy. I'm against the war on drugs and would much rather police have much more limited powers than they do now, but even I'm prepared to accept that the police should be entitled to search your person on the event of your arrest.
I'm glad police, in the USA at least, have to have a warrant to search your phone though. I don't think they should have the power to do that unless you're suspected of some crime involving your phone, in which case they'd have to get a warrant at some point anyway so they could just make it part of that.
No. If Apple is expecting technicians to be working on dusty machines, they should supply dust masks. The residue you get from cigarette smoke isn't harmful unless you're constantly breathing in huge clouds of it, but then again breathing in large amounts of dust isn't generally a good idea for your health.
A simple dust mask of the type you'd use to work on wood would be more than enough protection. They can be bought in bulk for pennies each and can also be reused.
This obligation to their employees line is total bs. The problem is that smokers PCs are a bitch to clean out and so they're refusing to service them because it costs them more. There's also Jobs' famous aversion to smoking; this is just a case of the glorious leader dictating how people should live their lives.
You may as well prosecute people who don't clean themselves properly. In a public place, cigarette smoke is just a bad smell (to non smokers!). Second hand smoke is only a risk when you're exposed to it constantly, i.e. working around lots of smokers or living with a smoker.
There is no health risk from being stood next to a smoker on a street. You're breathing more carcinogens from the cars driving down the road.
I'm not aware of any way to configure sudo to require the root password. In fact, sudo was developed to solve the need to give every user who might require elevated privs at some point from requiring the root password; configuring it in that manner would defeat the point of it!
If you want users to give the root password to run an elevated command then you're best just running 'su -c'.
Who honestly thinks that it's 1% of modders who're playing genuine backups? Who'd honestly even try to argue that it's than 0.0001%?
Most publishers will replace damaged discs for a nominal fee btw, at least here in the UK.
That's utterly ridiculous. I bought a cheap second hand 120GB drive off ebay for half the price of a new drive. After a while I noticed that it wasn't actually a genuine 120GB drive, it was an off the shelf drive that had been reflashed with the official 360 HDD firmware and placed in a standard 20GB drive case. I'm still on live just fine.
If they had nefarious fan detection and banning routines, I'm fairly certain they'd have managed to do the same for the unofficial HDDs out there too.
The only detectable modifications are the drive firmware mods, that's what they were banning people for.
You need to connect to live in order to get title updates and use netflix. You're not allowed to connect to live with a modified system.
How is that difficult to understand?
Also, allowing any modified system threatens the stability of live. If they allowed hacked boxes to connect in certain ways then those machines could potentially find exploits to reacquire the denied features. MS would have to do QA using all the various hacked firmwares and homebrew tools that have been released for 360!
You'd have to be a total idiot to expect them to do that.
No. Tbh, now that MS is making money on 360 hardware, I think they quite like forcing pirates to buy a new console every 6 months or so. Given how MS has gone about enforcing their hardware protection this generation, I can't see how pirating is really that much cheaper than buying original.
That's because it's possible to use hacks to artificially inflate your gamerscore. It's quite right that MS should be booting pirates off their network in this manner.
That blog with discussion on this story posted an update from that McIntyre saying "Earlier today, CRU cancelled all existing passwords. Actions speaking loudly.". What kind of impartial, sceptical scientist peddles that sort of innuendo? CRU have clearly experienced a major breach in their security, resetting all passwords is hopefully just the first step they're going to take to secure their network.
No wonder there's a CRU email where somebody commented they'd rather destroy all their data than release it to McIntyre. I have no idea who's who in the climate change denier world but simply from what I've read of his comments around this incident, he sounds like a kook.
However, this does point to questions that nobody would otherwise know to ask.
The classic Glen Beck "I'm just asking questions!" line. What's the point in exposing laymen to raw data out of context? How could you expect them to even formulate a sensible question?
Scientists scrutinise each other all the time via peer review. The fact that all serious climate scientists believe man made global warming is the best model to explain their data is all us non-climate scientists really need to know.
Root is fairly meaningless these days. If you can compromise the user (say via a flash vulnerability) then it's trivial to have your malware run as part of the users login session. Odds are they won't even notice!
Not that that fact makes me feel better about this fedora policy. It just feels wrong somehow...
Sudo doesn't take your root password, it takes your password. Also, I'm not aware that anybody with a clue has complained about UAC whilst cheering about sudo. UAC is actually a step up from sudo because it uses a secure input driver to stop a programme clicking OK automatically whereas with sudo there's no equivalent protection from keyloggers.
The only real advantage of sudo over UAC is that you can user sudoers to limit which executables normal users can run whereas with UAC you either have admin rights for everything or nothing, although I suspect you can mess around with user rights in Windows to give much finer grained capability permission.
The only issue with UAC is how annoying the prompts can be and that's because of badly written software that assumes it has to have full admin rights. UAC prompts happen less these days though.
So yea, at least check the facts before posting. Must troll harder!
Yea, realised that wasn't clear after posting. I meant to say "stopping such plots before they reach the airport."
I don't think it's possible to stop someone of reasonable intelligence from bringing down a plane once they've arrived at an airport. I don't mind metal detectors and baggage x-rays - that's just part of the standard idiot filter that's been effective for ages - but no liquids? Taking shoes off? Please.
The only banned lighters are petrol based lighters like Zippos; Butane based lighters are completely OK. I went from Heathrow -> JFK -> Miami -> Jamaica (booked three days in advance, that route was cheapest at last minute!) and had no problems carrying lighters into the cabin.
Curiously my lighters got taken off me coming back out of Kingston. I did half-heartedly point out that I'd been through a UK and two US airports without any trouble but, as we all know, once airport security make up their mind then you either agree or don't fly.
I bought another cheap disposable butane lighter in Miami (straight back to Heathrow on the return at least) and had no problem taking it airside.
Laptop batteries have protective circuits to prevent rapid discharge and eliminate that risk
I bet you could open a laptop battery and bypass those circuits, then you'd just have the positive and negative poles connecting straight to the contacts on the outside of the battery. After that it's just a matter of shorting the battery out.
The advantage of doing that rather than just filling a laptop battery shell with other more powerful explosives is that, if done with skill, it'd look just like a normal laptop battery in the X-Ray machines.
I seriously doubt Islamic-fascist terrorists have failed to think of this. The reason why no more planes have gone down is because either nobody wants to suicide bomb planes or because our security services are doing a good job of stopping such plots. If anyone really wants to bring down a plane they can and nobody can stop them, security theatre be damned!