Do these big corporate f*cks never learn, it's all fun and games when the company is young and full of hipsters giving away this hip new product for free but when the corporate magnates come in and try to milk their userbase for what it's worth it's usually game over.
You seem to be missing the point: by this time, the founders have cashed out massive amounts of money from their overly inflated stock and the fact that they never had a viable business model in the first place is irrelevant. The idea and the user base is FAR more valuable than a business model.
They were always going to milk their user base, and anybody who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention.
Me, I don't give a crap what happens to WhatsApp. I don't even know what it's for, but it has reached the level of popularity where it generates spam pretending to be from it... which tells me it's just another hipster app I don't use but whose existence has started to bleed over into generating phishing spam.
But this is always going to be a very limited segment... it's gimmicks and advertising, but there's no general market for on-demand helicopter rides.
This is more about a couple of events in which a bunch of rich people need to be shuttled around and have their asses kissed.
Keeping a helicopter on stand by is only going to be meaningful if you know you have a bunch of it to do.
Otherwise you'd be charging hundreds (thousands?) to go pick up some schmuck and bring him to school so he can show off.
This is beyond even first work problems. This is the problems of the 1%, the rest of the world doesn't give a crap if some rich ass can dial up a helicopter ride on demand.
Is this any different than "spaceship model designer" or "cinematographer" or the guys who designed the weapons used by Orcs in LOTR over at WETA?
If there's suddenly a lot of people trying to have authentic sounding languages in their films, there will be a market for people who have shown they can do it.
But it's probably linguists doing this thing who were already working that field. I doubt you'll suddenly start seeing "fake language designer" showing up as a major any time soon... the market probably isn't big enough to do that.
There won't be hundreds of people coming out of a diploma program finding work doing this I bet.
I offer a counter example of just how many speak Klingon.
I should think it's better because it sounds more authentic than someone standing there going "booga booga", and because if you plan on sub-titling things, people might notice if you don't make an effort. Especially if a phrase will be used more than once.
I've watched a bunch of special features/making of for various movies, and the ones which do this can build in much more complex layers and nuance, and sell it as a believable thing... from Tolkien to the latest Superman, the added depth of creating your own languages makes it seem more plausible and real than "booga booga".
My favorite example of this came from the movie Ultraviolet, which admittedly isn't the best piece of cinema ever. There is a spot in which someone, ostensibly a Chinese speaker, says "xin loi" to say "sorry", which through a Vietnamese friend I recognized as not Chinese but Vietnamese.
If you just have actors say any old gibberish, or pass off one language as another... someone WILL notice. In that case someone must have decided any Asian language would suffice, because it all sounds the same anyway.
If I spotted it, and I know no more than about 3-4 words of Vietnamese, every Chinese and Vietnamese speaker heard it and went "WTF was that about?".
so gov't convinces/forces companies to build back doors into products. then ISIS et al just build their own apps with "real" encryption. oh wait, they already have:
When they outlaw security, only criminals will have it.
This is a band-aid solution by people who do not understand the consequences of wishing to redefine reality.
Anybody who thinks you can put a backdoor into crypto and not create a massive hole which can be exploited by almost anybody is too fucking stupid to have an opinion about cryptography.
You have secure, robust cryptography... Or you have a worthless bit of technology which is useless for security.
If ANY entity can exploit it via known means, then it's utterly worthless. There's no middle ground.
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
If you are so criminally stupid as to not realize by now what those licenses mean, you need to be treated as a malicious entity.
Sorry, but 'stupidity' in this case is utterly indefensible. If you have the skillset to put this together, you sure as hell can't claim you didn't know about the licensing.
It's simple existence opens up a huge list of problems.
If they think it's a backdoor solely for their purposes, they're delusional and too stupid to understand the technology.
And, just like all of the spy powers they gave themselves which they said would only be used for terrorism... now they routinely use it for other forms of law enforcement (think Parallel Construction, aka institutionalized perjury).
The lie starts with the belief they and only they can access it. And then it snowballs into every way in which it will be misused.
But the reality is, we should stop at the whole idea there is any form of security once it's got a big gaping hole in it.. everything from banking to computer security is so utterly undermined with a backdoor it isn't funny. There isn't any security as soon as you have a backdoor. Not for anybody.
And the existence of such a back door makes it the single most valuable secret on the planet. It would be a shockingly short period of time before dozens of entities had access to it.
The big lie is that you can have any technical means to do this without throwing it wide open. Then it's just a matter of who is abusing it... because the act of creating this backdoor means it's only a matter of time before there's no security at all.
You might as well pass a law that says pi is 3 -- because it means you're just as ignorant about reality.
The biggest problem with backdoors is not that they weaken encryption, although that's terrible.
No, that is the damned problem.
There is NO technical means by which you can have a backdoor which is only usable by one government. Once you build in that kind of defect it stands a good chance of being exploited by anybody else -- other governments, hackers, criminals, and even the very terrorists you claim to be fighting.
And if the idiots in the US government feel the rest of the world should have weakened crypto for your security... well, then the US government is an actively hostile entity to our security and liberty.
The belief that government should have unfettered access to everything we do, and that we should trust them is idiotic. Because it's not just one entity who potentially can gain access.
What they're saying is they want a skeleton key for every lock, and they're stupidly claiming nobody would ever abuse that and nobody but them could get to it.
Any product which builds in this for the US government should expect every other government to demand access to the same back door, and should also expect people in every other country to stop buying it.
This isn't a solution, and it never can be. You want access, you get a warrant, and compel people to give you the password.
But pretending you can access it but nobody else can indicates you're a moron who doesn't understand the technology. Once you weaken it, you have weakened it for anybody who can figure out how. That's doesn't leave anybody else with any measure of security.
The US government cannot create this without also understanding they've given a means to everyone else to hack into everything in the US by figuring out the way it works.
Allowed?? How the hell do you plan on filtering out everything on the 3-40 micron scale? From the same article:
they are literally everywhere. There is no reasonable, reliable and cost-effective means of eliminating them from environments that humans inhabit. So, trying to control mold growth through the elimination of mold spores is not feasible.
You clearly don't understand what you're talking about.
Nobody "allows" mold spores in. Nobody can really prevent them.
Well, gee, we can look at supporting the fragile biology because it exists and we can do real science around that... or we can rely on something which is nowhere near existing (uploading human consciousness into computers).
So basically you're saying we should wait until we perfect technology we don't even remotely have, and not bother doing stuff we actually can?
I'm sorry, but saying we should halt science to wait for science fiction means we'd never fucking do anything, because we'd all be sitting around waiting for the science fiction to magically happen.
I'll put my faith in real science instead of something have no idea will ever be possible.
You might as well say we should wait until we've evolved to be able to survive in space. Like that's gonna just happen by magic.
"...in June 1953, Katherine was contracted as a research mathematician at the Langley Research Center... At first she worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. Katherine has referred to the women in the pool as virtual `[computers] who wore [skirts].' Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. Then one day, Katherine (and a colleague) were temporarily assigned to help the all-male flight research team. Katherine's knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that,'they forgot to return me to the pool.' While the racial and gender barriers were always there, Katherine says she ignored them. Katherine was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings (where no women had gone before.) She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged."
This isn't some flunky doing the boring calculations beneath the principal researchers... this is someone actively contributing to the outcomes, but who got ignored when it came time for credit.
She plotted backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures. In 1962, when NASA used computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth, officials called on her to verify the computer's numbers. Ms. Johnson later worked directly with real computers. Her ability and reputation for accuracy helped to establish confidence in the new technology. She calculated the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. Later in her career, she worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite, and on plans for a mission to Mars.
This is a woman who deserves a ton of credit for actually being a significant part of history at NASA. She sure as hell wasn't just sitting around adding up a few thing here and there.
"Trustwave willfully disregarded further evidence that the breach was likely more widespread than what the firm found through its review of the limited systems it examined," the lawsuit reads. "Trustwave willfully disregarded other evidence that the breach was more widespread than first believed."
According to the Mandiant report, the attacker accessed at least 93 systems and deployed credit card harvesting malware on 76, 12 of which were PCI (Payment Card Industry)-compliant servers, which Trustwave was specifically told to inspect.
This really sounds like they hired Trustware, who did a half-assed job, and failed to look at things they had been contracted to look at.
So, take your pick: incompetence, laziness, or fraud.
Facepalm. That's just overblown trash-talk. Microsoft collects basic telemetry like system uptime, installed updates, and how many times you have used UWP apps
So here's the problem with that: it's none of their fucking business unless we opt in.
I don't give a shit what Microsoft wants. It should be up to me if my computer sends any fucking data to Microsoft or not.
I am stuck using their OS for some stuff. I should not be forced to send them any fucking data about my fucking usage patterns.
Microsoft is accelerating the rate at which people are going to aggressively look for alternatives, but they don't seem to give a shit.
Basic telemetry my ass. Trash talk my ass.
Go ahead, be a fanboi apologist. But don't downplay that Microsoft has decided they don't need our fucking permission to do things to OUR fucking computers.
No, they just creatively define "owes" like every other corporation who feels it should be their right to not pay any taxes.
When broke humans pay more as a percentage in tax than mega rich corporations, there's a problem.
Given that they've been outsourcing all the fucking jobs, they don't get to pretend like they drive the economy any more.
Corporate tax rates should increase proportional to job cuts and off-shoring... that way they can stop fucking pretending to be the economic driving force they no longer are.
What's that? You laid off 25% of your work force to move it overseas? Well, that will be a 25% tax increase, assholes.
Why people expect a robust, mature, and functioning degree of security in something which is brand new, and essentially the wild west is beyond me.
How many huge bitcoin thefts have there been? And just why would we think something which has value isn't going to be the target of theft?
These are lessons the banking industry has learned over decades, and taken steps to prevent.
But suddenly someone invents crypto currency and they act all surprise to get ripped off... and then they all stand around wondering why the magical unicorns which were supposed to make these things perfect don't really exist.
Why the fuck do people keep believing that some wallet or exchange which came into existence a few months ago is secure? There's no regulations, and not nearly enough history of having to get it right to have any faith in that.
This is "unexpected" in no way that I can tell. In fact, it's entirely what people have predicted.
Whatever. Let's stop pretending this is surprising to anybody. These are inherent flaws in the platform, and pretending otherwise is just sad.
You might be as happy as a pig in shit with a device that just does one thing adequately right out of the box and is useless for anything else, but this is a site for engineers; not social runoff that thinks it's too smart for Facebook.
You might feel the need to be an ignorant ass, but I don't give a fuck.
If you can't act like a grown up, go back to fucking your sister, because I don't give a crap if you want to act like a childish prick.
Wah wah, someone disagrees with you... grow the fuck up.
So, how does this whole SJW thing work... the world is divided into raging fanatics who want a nicer world, and assholes who want to preserve their right to act like assholes?
I'm a little unclear on the concept.
Mostly it seems to be a bunch of guys whining they can't act like ignorant douchebags without consequences.
People will still flock to Apple and buy the shit out of it. And Apple knows it.
And what are the options?
Windows? Which is taking away control of your computer and sending analytics to the mother ship whether you agree or not? And which has been a source of security holes forever?
Linux, in which you hope you will be able to find a replacement for all of your stuff, or have to buy new stuff so it can be supported?
ChromeOS in which everything you do is sent to Google?
There's a finite amount of choices, and the Windows isn't a better choice, and Linux (despite what it's adherents claim) doesn't support everything people want.
But, hey, keep acting like Apple is the worst of all possible options. I know people from tech VPs to the guy who installed my fireplace which are Apple-only households, and happy as hell about it.
No, I understand what you meant, I know exactly what "aspire" means... but there was always more than one church, not everybody was a protestant, not everybody subscribed to the ideas, and not everybody said no.
You can try to force people to drink the kool aid, but that doesn't mean it fucking works. The more you try to force them, the less well it works. The more you think they'll just voluntarily comply because your ideas are so perfect, the more you're a zealot.
Hundreds of years of idiocy caused by the Catholic Church didn't change human nature any more than Pol Pot or Chairman Mao did with their ruthless version of things.
I'm flat out saying any system which either HOPES everyone will follow your perfect ideology, or that you can successfully FORCE people to follow your perfect ideology is doomed to fail... because no matter how much you want them to, humans will simply not do it. The problem isn't humans -- it's your moronic belief that you can succeed in making them all comply.
All that happens is the people at the top decide they get special privileges, or the people at the bottom figure out they're getting screwed in the deal (or would otherwise like to enrich themselves at someone else's expense).
None of it works 100% of the time, and none of it ever will. If your thing only works because everyone is doing it... your thing is fucking bullshit and won't work.
Sure, set goals you want people to attempt to attain. But don't act like your fucking ideology would have been perfect if only everybody had complied, because it's never going to happen.
Slashdot Mirror
You seem to be missing the point: by this time, the founders have cashed out massive amounts of money from their overly inflated stock and the fact that they never had a viable business model in the first place is irrelevant. The idea and the user base is FAR more valuable than a business model.
They were always going to milk their user base, and anybody who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention.
Me, I don't give a crap what happens to WhatsApp. I don't even know what it's for, but it has reached the level of popularity where it generates spam pretending to be from it ... which tells me it's just another hipster app I don't use but whose existence has started to bleed over into generating phishing spam.
But this is always going to be a very limited segment ... it's gimmicks and advertising, but there's no general market for on-demand helicopter rides.
This is more about a couple of events in which a bunch of rich people need to be shuttled around and have their asses kissed.
Keeping a helicopter on stand by is only going to be meaningful if you know you have a bunch of it to do.
Otherwise you'd be charging hundreds (thousands?) to go pick up some schmuck and bring him to school so he can show off.
This is beyond even first work problems. This is the problems of the 1%, the rest of the world doesn't give a crap if some rich ass can dial up a helicopter ride on demand.
Is this any different than "spaceship model designer" or "cinematographer" or the guys who designed the weapons used by Orcs in LOTR over at WETA?
If there's suddenly a lot of people trying to have authentic sounding languages in their films, there will be a market for people who have shown they can do it.
But it's probably linguists doing this thing who were already working that field. I doubt you'll suddenly start seeing "fake language designer" showing up as a major any time soon ... the market probably isn't big enough to do that.
There won't be hundreds of people coming out of a diploma program finding work doing this I bet.
I offer a counter example of just how many speak Klingon.
I should think it's better because it sounds more authentic than someone standing there going "booga booga", and because if you plan on sub-titling things, people might notice if you don't make an effort. Especially if a phrase will be used more than once.
I've watched a bunch of special features/making of for various movies, and the ones which do this can build in much more complex layers and nuance, and sell it as a believable thing ... from Tolkien to the latest Superman, the added depth of creating your own languages makes it seem more plausible and real than "booga booga".
My favorite example of this came from the movie Ultraviolet, which admittedly isn't the best piece of cinema ever. There is a spot in which someone, ostensibly a Chinese speaker, says "xin loi" to say "sorry", which through a Vietnamese friend I recognized as not Chinese but Vietnamese.
If you just have actors say any old gibberish, or pass off one language as another ... someone WILL notice. In that case someone must have decided any Asian language would suffice, because it all sounds the same anyway.
If I spotted it, and I know no more than about 3-4 words of Vietnamese, every Chinese and Vietnamese speaker heard it and went "WTF was that about?".
How do you decide to what extent a language will have less polite/more naughty aspects, and how do you decide what they are?
Almost every language will have some kind of swearing, or double-entendres, or other aspects which aren't purely syntactic.
Obviously a warrior race is going to have much more bawdy aspects to their language than a race of monks.
Surely delivering insults can be as integral to a language as merely conveying an idea.
When they outlaw security, only criminals will have it.
This is a band-aid solution by people who do not understand the consequences of wishing to redefine reality.
Anybody who thinks you can put a backdoor into crypto and not create a massive hole which can be exploited by almost anybody is too fucking stupid to have an opinion about cryptography.
You have secure, robust cryptography ... Or you have a worthless bit of technology which is useless for security.
If ANY entity can exploit it via known means, then it's utterly worthless. There's no middle ground.
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
If you are so criminally stupid as to not realize by now what those licenses mean, you need to be treated as a malicious entity.
Sorry, but 'stupidity' in this case is utterly indefensible. If you have the skillset to put this together, you sure as hell can't claim you didn't know about the licensing.
It's simple existence opens up a huge list of problems.
If they think it's a backdoor solely for their purposes, they're delusional and too stupid to understand the technology.
And, just like all of the spy powers they gave themselves which they said would only be used for terrorism ... now they routinely use it for other forms of law enforcement (think Parallel Construction, aka institutionalized perjury).
The lie starts with the belief they and only they can access it. And then it snowballs into every way in which it will be misused.
But the reality is, we should stop at the whole idea there is any form of security once it's got a big gaping hole in it .. everything from banking to computer security is so utterly undermined with a backdoor it isn't funny. There isn't any security as soon as you have a backdoor. Not for anybody.
And the existence of such a back door makes it the single most valuable secret on the planet. It would be a shockingly short period of time before dozens of entities had access to it.
The big lie is that you can have any technical means to do this without throwing it wide open. Then it's just a matter of who is abusing it ... because the act of creating this backdoor means it's only a matter of time before there's no security at all.
You might as well pass a law that says pi is 3 -- because it means you're just as ignorant about reality.
No, that is the damned problem.
There is NO technical means by which you can have a backdoor which is only usable by one government. Once you build in that kind of defect it stands a good chance of being exploited by anybody else -- other governments, hackers, criminals, and even the very terrorists you claim to be fighting.
And if the idiots in the US government feel the rest of the world should have weakened crypto for your security ... well, then the US government is an actively hostile entity to our security and liberty.
The belief that government should have unfettered access to everything we do, and that we should trust them is idiotic. Because it's not just one entity who potentially can gain access.
What they're saying is they want a skeleton key for every lock, and they're stupidly claiming nobody would ever abuse that and nobody but them could get to it.
Any product which builds in this for the US government should expect every other government to demand access to the same back door, and should also expect people in every other country to stop buying it.
This isn't a solution, and it never can be. You want access, you get a warrant, and compel people to give you the password.
But pretending you can access it but nobody else can indicates you're a moron who doesn't understand the technology. Once you weaken it, you have weakened it for anybody who can figure out how. That's doesn't leave anybody else with any measure of security.
The US government cannot create this without also understanding they've given a means to everyone else to hack into everything in the US by figuring out the way it works.
Which tends to happen when the "lying bastards" aspect of the companies in question gets as high as it did.
They brought that on themselves.
You can't have MegaFeet creeping into those measures ... you need to convert it to the more accepted "furlongs" and "leagues".
You can't just move around the decimal place.
You have to express it as 601.286683 furlongs/fortnight.
I will leave you with the following question: If you had a unicorn, would it shit skittles and piss moonbeams?
Because, really, mine is just as likely as yours given existing technology.
So, why even consider it?
LOL, what??? Are you joking??
A quick google says that mold spores are 3 to 40 microns.
Allowed?? How the hell do you plan on filtering out everything on the 3-40 micron scale? From the same article:
You clearly don't understand what you're talking about.
Nobody "allows" mold spores in. Nobody can really prevent them.
Well, gee, we can look at supporting the fragile biology because it exists and we can do real science around that ... or we can rely on something which is nowhere near existing (uploading human consciousness into computers).
So basically you're saying we should wait until we perfect technology we don't even remotely have, and not bother doing stuff we actually can?
I'm sorry, but saying we should halt science to wait for science fiction means we'd never fucking do anything, because we'd all be sitting around waiting for the science fiction to magically happen.
I'll put my faith in real science instead of something have no idea will ever be possible.
You might as well say we should wait until we've evolved to be able to survive in space. Like that's gonna just happen by magic.
No kidding, from the Gutenberg link:
This isn't some flunky doing the boring calculations beneath the principal researchers ... this is someone actively contributing to the outcomes, but who got ignored when it came time for credit.
This is a woman who deserves a ton of credit for actually being a significant part of history at NASA. She sure as hell wasn't just sitting around adding up a few thing here and there.
No, no it isn't:
This really sounds like they hired Trustware, who did a half-assed job, and failed to look at things they had been contracted to look at.
So, take your pick: incompetence, laziness, or fraud.
Hey, it's entirely possible to be expensive and incompetent.
Lousy companies never cease to over-value their services.
So here's the problem with that: it's none of their fucking business unless we opt in.
I don't give a shit what Microsoft wants. It should be up to me if my computer sends any fucking data to Microsoft or not.
I am stuck using their OS for some stuff. I should not be forced to send them any fucking data about my fucking usage patterns.
Microsoft is accelerating the rate at which people are going to aggressively look for alternatives, but they don't seem to give a shit.
Basic telemetry my ass. Trash talk my ass.
Go ahead, be a fanboi apologist. But don't downplay that Microsoft has decided they don't need our fucking permission to do things to OUR fucking computers.
No, they just creatively define "owes" like every other corporation who feels it should be their right to not pay any taxes.
When broke humans pay more as a percentage in tax than mega rich corporations, there's a problem.
Given that they've been outsourcing all the fucking jobs, they don't get to pretend like they drive the economy any more.
Corporate tax rates should increase proportional to job cuts and off-shoring ... that way they can stop fucking pretending to be the economic driving force they no longer are.
What's that? You laid off 25% of your work force to move it overseas? Well, that will be a 25% tax increase, assholes.
It's been bad security for months.
Why people expect a robust, mature, and functioning degree of security in something which is brand new, and essentially the wild west is beyond me.
How many huge bitcoin thefts have there been? And just why would we think something which has value isn't going to be the target of theft?
These are lessons the banking industry has learned over decades, and taken steps to prevent.
But suddenly someone invents crypto currency and they act all surprise to get ripped off ... and then they all stand around wondering why the magical unicorns which were supposed to make these things perfect don't really exist.
Why the fuck do people keep believing that some wallet or exchange which came into existence a few months ago is secure? There's no regulations, and not nearly enough history of having to get it right to have any faith in that.
This is "unexpected" in no way that I can tell. In fact, it's entirely what people have predicted.
Whatever. Let's stop pretending this is surprising to anybody. These are inherent flaws in the platform, and pretending otherwise is just sad.
You might feel the need to be an ignorant ass, but I don't give a fuck.
If you can't act like a grown up, go back to fucking your sister, because I don't give a crap if you want to act like a childish prick.
Wah wah, someone disagrees with you ... grow the fuck up.
So, how does this whole SJW thing work ... the world is divided into raging fanatics who want a nicer world, and assholes who want to preserve their right to act like assholes?
I'm a little unclear on the concept.
Mostly it seems to be a bunch of guys whining they can't act like ignorant douchebags without consequences.
And what are the options?
Windows? Which is taking away control of your computer and sending analytics to the mother ship whether you agree or not? And which has been a source of security holes forever?
Linux, in which you hope you will be able to find a replacement for all of your stuff, or have to buy new stuff so it can be supported?
ChromeOS in which everything you do is sent to Google?
There's a finite amount of choices, and the Windows isn't a better choice, and Linux (despite what it's adherents claim) doesn't support everything people want.
But, hey, keep acting like Apple is the worst of all possible options. I know people from tech VPs to the guy who installed my fireplace which are Apple-only households, and happy as hell about it.
Then use lawyers and politicians.
No, I understand what you meant, I know exactly what "aspire" means ... but there was always more than one church, not everybody was a protestant, not everybody subscribed to the ideas, and not everybody said no.
You can try to force people to drink the kool aid, but that doesn't mean it fucking works. The more you try to force them, the less well it works. The more you think they'll just voluntarily comply because your ideas are so perfect, the more you're a zealot.
Hundreds of years of idiocy caused by the Catholic Church didn't change human nature any more than Pol Pot or Chairman Mao did with their ruthless version of things.
I'm flat out saying any system which either HOPES everyone will follow your perfect ideology, or that you can successfully FORCE people to follow your perfect ideology is doomed to fail ... because no matter how much you want them to, humans will simply not do it. The problem isn't humans -- it's your moronic belief that you can succeed in making them all comply.
All that happens is the people at the top decide they get special privileges, or the people at the bottom figure out they're getting screwed in the deal (or would otherwise like to enrich themselves at someone else's expense).
None of it works 100% of the time, and none of it ever will. If your thing only works because everyone is doing it ... your thing is fucking bullshit and won't work.
Sure, set goals you want people to attempt to attain. But don't act like your fucking ideology would have been perfect if only everybody had complied, because it's never going to happen.