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User: Strider-

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  1. Re: Minor setback on SpaceX Rocket Launch Succeeds, But Landing Test Doesn't · · Score: 1

    But what good would it do to keep an empty fuel tank in orbit ?

    Especially one that's covered in foam that's off-gassing, and shedding small bits and pieces over time. Also, never mind the fact that the tanks were built as thin and as lightweight as possible, so had they been pressurized and converted into living spaces, they would have provided little to no shielding against space debris or radiation. Also, never mind the fact that by definition they were almost empty after launch, so you would still need to haul up all the fittings, equipment, furniture, etc... that you would need to stick inside them.

    The reality is that other than the strong-back that held the shuttle and the SRBs together, the ETs were really just giant aluminum cans, and were about as useful as a spent aluminum can.

  2. Re:Early "naughties" on The Mystery of Glenn Seaborg's Missing Plutonium: Solved · · Score: 2

    It ought to be the Noughties, which is the proper pun for that decade.

  3. Re:Nonsense! on Researchers "Solve" Texas Hold'Em, Create Perfect Robotic Player · · Score: 1

    How do the creators of this thing say it's perfect?

    They have computed every possible game of limit hold'em poker. Based on these computations, the bot will always pick the optimal hand for the given situation (or possibly fold). Yes, it may lose a hand here or there, but the point is that over the long term, given enough hands, it will always beat imperfect (read human) players.

  4. Re:Perfect? Really? on Researchers "Solve" Texas Hold'Em, Create Perfect Robotic Player · · Score: 1

    Limit hold'em is real poker, and people actually do play it, at real casinos and everything.

    Meh, it's nothing more than advanced blackjack... In real poker, you don't share cards with your adversaries, have wildcards, etc... This "hold'em" poker is just a bunch of tripe to make things look ok for TV.

  5. Re:Re usability on In Daring Plan, Tomorrow SpaceX To Land a Rocket On Floating Platform · · Score: 4, Informative

    The external tank is jettisoned too high to recover. It was thought that it could be used in space to construct something but that was never done.

    As much as this played out in various types of fiction and so forth, the reality is that the tanks wouldn't have been all that useful in orbit. The foam insulation would have off-gassed significantly and dumped all sorts of crap into your orbital environment, and the tanks themselves had nowhere near the shielding required to be used for human habitation (both radiation, and micrometeorite).

  6. Re:Don't be afraid on New Canadian Copyright Laws Require ISPs To Retain, Share Illegal Download Info · · Score: 1

    According to Michael Geist, this law limits liability to $5000 for *ALL* infringements. In your example, the copyright owner would have to bring forward separate court proceedings for each of those 10,000 infringements. I doubt any court would accept that.

  7. Re:Laughably wrong. on The One Mistake Google Keeps Making · · Score: 1

    But in 10 years, every new car sold in the US, including the lowest-end Fiesta, will have options for some degree of automated driving. At the very least, there will be a driverless highway mode.

    Why does everyone want to not drive? I find driving to be a particularly enjoyable task, hell I don't even mind being stuck in traffic as long as I have NPR/CBC or decent podcasts to listen to.

  8. Re:Four Million? on Sony Hack Reveals MPAA's Big '$80 Million' Settlement With Hotfile Was a Lie · · Score: 1

    I would prefer to pay them in Ningi.

  9. Re:Who will get on North Korean Internet Is Down · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It kind of begs the question about what the US is still doing in South Korea anyhow. South Korea is a rich country. They can afford their own defense, but its convenient for them for Uncle Sam to pick up the tab. I have stood on the North side of the DMZ and it is clear that the US is just a thorn in the situation making everybody tense. There is no doubt that the South Koreans can adequately defend themselves against any potential "invasion" from the North. There is no reason for the US to be there. The constant presence of US marines on the DMZ make the North Koreans nervous that the South will invade them.

    One of the running half-jokes amongst the US troops and marines in South Korea is their primary purpose is to keep the South Korean army in the south, not the other way around. The US influence keeps the south somewhat calm, and acts as a deterrent to the north.

  10. Re:Celular on Cuba Says the Internet Now a Priority · · Score: 1

    Hah, no. There's a heck of a lot more that goes on there beyond the detention facilities. The real reason though was pretty boring, I was doing some work for the on-base cable company.

  11. Re:Invasive Species Introduction in Wood Pallets on The Magic of Pallets · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is why there are now standards for what wood can be shipped internationally. All wood packaging entering the United States (Pallets, Cable spools, crates, etc...) is supposed to be fumigated and treated to avoid this. This is one of the things that import inspections actually do catch.

  12. Re:Celular on Cuba Says the Internet Now a Priority · · Score: 2

    Cellular is pretty much the only reasonable option given the lack of infrastructure. It can be installed completely wireless, aside from power. And finally, an answer to where the old phones can go.

    It already is. I was at GTMO on business, and as I was walking into one of the dining facilities, my cell phone rang. Everyone looked at me like I was from Mars, until I explained that as a Canadian phone, it happily roamed onto the Cuban cell network.

  13. Re:Sure but... on Launching 2015: a New Certificate Authority To Encrypt the Entire Web · · Score: 1

    Exactly. I work in an environment with very limited bandwidth (1.8Mbps private satellite link servicing ~80 people). SSL by default is the bane of my existence. Right now, I've got Cisco WAAS deployed, and it adds about another 30% of effective capacity to my link, and often more. If everything goes encrypted by default, then I lose all of that. I get no caching gain, no compression gain, nothing, unless I MITM the link, which is evil and causes no end of support headaches.

    Encrypt what needs to be encrypted (Authentication mechanisms, financial transactions, etc...) and leave the rest. There's no reason to encrypt cute cat pictures or grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe.

  14. Re:Caller ID spoofing on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With VoIP Fraud/Phishing Scams? · · Score: 2

    Sure, but you can verify that the ANI (originating number) belongs to a block that the customer is allowed to use. I have a PRI with two 100 blocks associated with it. I would expect that the telco would verify that the originating number I send to the switch is taken from those 200 valid numbers, if only in case someone calls 911 etc...

  15. Re: May I suggest on No More Lee-Enfield: Canada's Rangers To Get a Tech Upgrade · · Score: 2

    Remember, the old Lee Enfield rifles were never designed as sniper weapons. They were battle rifles first and foremost, which just happened to be pretty serviceable as sniper weapons. Additionally, I don't think the rifles to be replaced are scoped rifles. As far as I know they are simply standard Lee Enfield No.4's.

    Years ago, I was working in a research camp in the high arctic, and the Arctic Ranger in our camp let me shoot his Lee Enfield. Amazing weapon, and the perfect thing for knocking down a polar bear. The amazing thing with the weapon I used, is that it had graphiti on the stock... Scratched into it, and nearly worn away was written "June 6, 1944." which to me indicates that the weapon had been used at Normandy. The serial number on the barrel also indicated that the weapon pre-dated the Normandy landings as well.

  16. Re:News for nerds? on What Will It Take To Run a 2-Hour Marathon? · · Score: 1

    Eh? I always thought of my three sports (Skiing, Sailing, and SCUBA diving) as all being pretty nerdy sports... you need plenty of equipment, often with funny names, and know how to use that equipment properly (some more than others of course... when skiing, if your equipment doesn't work right, you faceplant... in Sailing, you don't go anywhere, and in SCUBA if your equipment isn't working, you might die).

  17. Right To (not) Work state? on Complain About Comcast, Get Fired From Your Job · · Score: 2

    Welcome to the new world...

  18. Re:Jamming unlinced spectrum is illegal? on Marriott Fined $600,000 For Jamming Guest Hotspots · · Score: 5, Informative

    Am I wrong? That's how I read the whitepaper.

    You are wrong. At least one model of Meraki access point has a dedicated radio for this purpose. It attacks other wifi networks through a number of mechanisms, including pretending to be the AP under attack, to attract clients to it, sending spoofed de-auth packets to the clients of other APs, and other techniques to effectively conduct a denial of service attack on whatever other wireless network that may exist within its range. This is precisely what I was encountering on my network.

    The main issue I have with this technology is that it can be set to attack all other wifi networks. If it was limited to protecting the SSIDs under its control, I would have less of an issue with it. IE if the wireless system is advertising the SSID "Marriott Convention Center" and someone else sets up a rogue AP using the same SSID, then that's fair game, as the person running the rogue AP is either clueless, or has nefarious intent. If it's attacking "Bob's iPhone Network" then that's another matter.

  19. Re:Inverse Wi-fi law on Marriott Fined $600,000 For Jamming Guest Hotspots · · Score: 2

    Because most of the more expensive hotels are catering to business travellers, who will moan, then just expense the cost of getting online.

  20. Re:Jamming unlinced spectrum is illegal? on Marriott Fined $600,000 For Jamming Guest Hotspots · · Score: 5, Informative

    As much as I dislike Mariott's practice here, this is clearly outside the scope of the FCC's regulatory powers and as far as I know isn't even in violation of their own regulations. First of all, WiFi operates on UNREGULATED spectrum, which means anyone can use, and anyone must accept interference from other users.

    Not quite true, the ISM bands are Unlicensed bands, not unregulated. In order to sell equipment used to transmit on these bands, the systems must be type approved. Part of this type approval process includes ensuring that the equipment in question will not cause undue interference to other users on the band. To me, sending rogue de-auth packets constitutes interference.

    In Meraki's Air Marshal Whitepaper, they explicitly state on page 8 that Unauthorized containment is prosecutable by law (subject to the FCC’s Communications Act of 1934, Section 333, ‘Willful or Malicious Interference’)..

    I actually had this particular issue affect me. As a volunteer, I operate a community-wide network, including a widespread wifi network, at a retreat centre high in the mountains of WA. At this time, there is a significant mine remediation project going on in our valley, so we have leased out several buildings to the construction companies, who setup their own Meraki system. Unfortunately, they enabled Air Marshal, which then went on to attack our wireless network. Despite running WPA-Enterprise on our network, it was still successful in attacking our networks, and rendering them nearly useless. In the end, we had to flex our muscles as the landlord to get the feature disabled.

    In my mind, the ability to attack adjacent networks should be illegal, and Cisco and the others should not be permitted to sell this technology to the general public. Rather the systems should simply alert on the presence of other wifi networks, and assist in locating them. Also, the wifi standards should really be updated to fix this type of vulnerability... in a WPA-Enterprise environment, clients should only respond to a de-auth packet encrypted/signed with the session key between the client and the AP its connected to.

  21. Re:Tech people like their privacy on Logitech Aims To Control the Smart Home · · Score: 1

    Adding to your insightful commentary, I do NOT want anyone to access the programming I have setup on my devices because I do not want anyone with possibly malevolent intentions being able to guess when I am home/on vacation.

    Huh? How would accessing the programming tell when you were on vacation? The program/configuration that controls your stuff is stored on the device itself, not stored/run in the cloud. The only information stored in the cloud is how your remote/system is configured, not its state. Once you configure the device, if you're exceedingly paranoid, you can always firewall it off from the outside world, and it will continue to work.

  22. Re:Cloud based? No Thanks! on Logitech Aims To Control the Smart Home · · Score: 1

    Only a fool would be OK with cloud based control and automation. If all the processing and control is not done on the local LAN then the product is 100% crap.

    The programming of the system is cloud based. The communications between the remote, the base, and your device occurs locally. The only ongoing cloud stuff comes in if you want to be able to use the app on your smartphone to control certain devices while you're away. If you don't want this functionality, nothing stopping you from firewalling off the base so that it can't communicate with the outside word.

  23. Re:Wrong Solution on Technological Solution For Texting While Driving Struggles For Traction · · Score: 1

    People hate driving in general.

    Eh, not everyone does. I quite enjoy driving, I don't even mind being stuck in traffic, as long as I've got the CBC or NPR on the dial...

    That said, I keep (handsfree) call short and sweet, and the only time I would ever check/send a text is stopped at a red light (which is still a ticketable offence here).

  24. Pandroica? on Hidden Archeology of Stonehenge Revealed In New Geophysical Map · · Score: 0

    Did they find that? I'm sure we all want to meet the doctor... ;)

  25. Re:Everything old is new again on To Really Cut Emissions, We Need Electric Buses, Not Just Electric Cars · · Score: 3, Informative

    Vancouver, BC has a very extensive trolleybus network, with 265 active trolley busses. The system works quite well, and the busses do have battery backup, so they can go off the wires for short periods of time (to go around road construction, accident, pass a parked bus, etc...). As for the wires being ugly? I dunno, they're just part of the fabric of the city. There are some intersections though with rather impressive spider webs hanging over them. :)