I've got to say, this seems creepy to me. It's not just spying on kids, it's spying on whoever is in range. It's basically an open mic in your home, transmitting to god knows who.
Who knows what kind of conversations it might overhear, or how it might be mined for incriminating information. Or how something innocuous might be misinterpreted as grounds for an investigation by the police, CPS, the FBI, etc etc.
I'd bet my ass it's easy to hack to act as a remotely controllable audio bug by anyone with nefarious intent.
Even worse, who's to say the stream couldn't be modified to make it seem like it "heard" child abuse, criminal activity, domestic violence, drug dealing...the possibilities are endless. How would you dispute a recording from one of these things where you were supposedly heard discussing (or confessing to) illegal activity? How would you prove it wasn't real?
If I was paranoid, I'd say that some intelligence organization is pushing these kinds of things in order to establish a covert surveillance network that could be used for all sorts of evil shit. But that's crazy, right? The CIA/FBI/NSA would never want a bunch of microphones in everyone's home, right?
He very well might be (and probably is) a very intelligent person, he just didn't study ancient Egypt.
Well, he says he did, and he says he believes that the pyramids were built to store grain. This is a breathtakingly stupid thing to come up with. Either he's wrong, or every Egyptologist, archeologist, and historian since the dawn of time who knows anything about Egypt is wrong.
It's such an astoundingly stupid thing to think that I hardly know where to begin. The Egyptian pyramids aren't even hollow. They're almost completely solid and usually only contain a few very small chambers, connected by long, narrow pathways. It would be delusional to think that they were built to store grain.
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Now, why Trump wants him to head up HUD of all things, I have no idea. The only job that suits him is surgeon general.
With his whacky views and kooky religious beliefs, he's not even well suited to be surgeon general. The man is an idiot, except for one particular area of expertise. And the reason he has such a fantastic reputation is because he wrote a bunch of books wherein he claims to be a stellar surgeon.
His peers rank him as "good" or "skilled", but he's also been sued for malpractice at least 6 or 7 times. In one case, Carson was accused of bungling a surgery to replace a shunt in the brain of an 9-year-old girl, leaving her disfigured for life and partially paralyzed. In another case, he allegedly punctured his patient’s eardrums during an operation and forgot a sponge in her skull, which he later claimed was a tumor.
Is he suited to be surgeon general? I don't think so. And that's not even touching on his apocalyptic Seventh-day Adventist beliefs that "end times are likely upon us". I'm sorry, but the man is a lunatic.
What is so special about that post anyway? What sort of extra special secret personal characteristics do you need for that job anyhow?
What is so special about cutting away some brain tissue? What sort of extra special secret personal characteristics (besides steady hands) do you need for that job anyhow?
Yeah, why have experience at all? It's stupid. That's why when I'm sick I go see a gardener, and when my car has a problem I take it to my plumber.
Republicans have somehow made a complete lack of experience into a positive qualification in politics. Is there anywhere else in life that rule would be taken seriously?
Because I live in the PNW, and have for the last 35+ years. The women here are generally not very friendly. They just aren't.
For one thing, they don't smile. In most of the US if you smile at a woman, she'll smile back. Out here you'll most likely get a tight-lipped grimace back. I've been all over the US and this is once of the only places I've ever been where the women simply don't smile.
Anywhere else in the US it seems like it's no problem to strike up a friendly conversation, but not here. The women here act like their shit don't stink and they make it clear that they're doing you a huge favor by lowering themselves to speak with you.
They mostly dress like grunge-fans, layers and layers of clothing and not a hint of femininity anywhere to be seen. You can walk around the malls and all over downtown and never once see a dress.
Yes, I'm generalizing, but the PNW has a reputation for the women here being uptight and unfriendly, and it's a well-deserved reputation.
We had one good choice, but the DNC stabbed him in the back and conspired to make sure he didn't get the nomination. And I will never, ever forgive them for that.
"Microsoft's response to the Amazon Echo and Google Home is Home Hub, a software update for Windows 10's Cortana personal assistant that turns any Windows PC into a smart speaker of sorts."
No it's not. Based on Microsoft's track record it will be a poorly-designed, late-to-market, barely functional piece of shit that will garner no market share except for that of the die-hard Windows fanbois. After a year or two of disappointing reviews and craptastic software updates they'll discontinue it.
Once again the wizards at Microsoft see something that someone else designed and, true to form, all they can do is copy it. Poorly.
Really, Microsoft should change their slogan to, "Wait for us, we're the leader!"
In all seriousness, I think that Ben Carson is an intelligent and accomplished man.
Ben Carson has single-handedly put to bed the notion that brain surgeons are smart people. And it was done pretty much by his own words and actions.
The fascinating part is that we now know you don't actually have to be very bright to do brain surgery. It's almost as if a person could be good at one thing and yet still be a total imbecile at everything else...
He might be a good brain surgeon, but I wouldn't let him fix my computer, tune my car, or hem my pants. And I sure as shit wouldn't let him "educate me" on what the pyramids of Egypt were built for.
I've kicked my way out of more than one car through a window, it's not that hard.:)
Plus there are all sorts of bits and pieces inside the car that you can break off to crack the glass. Pull off a headrest and use the metal prongs. Use the metal seatbelt tab to crack it. Tear off the rearview mirror and start bashing away.
It would be useful sometimes, if it allowed me to populate the search field with one of their suggestions and add text to the suggestion BEFORE they do the search.
Ummm, it does. At least it does on my PC.
Start typing, use the arrow keys to move down to the suggestion you like, then type some more. You can revise the line as much as you like, backspace, add/remove words and text, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I've got to say, this seems creepy to me. It's not just spying on kids, it's spying on whoever is in range. It's basically an open mic in your home, transmitting to god knows who.
Who knows what kind of conversations it might overhear, or how it might be mined for incriminating information. Or how something innocuous might be misinterpreted as grounds for an investigation by the police, CPS, the FBI, etc etc.
I'd bet my ass it's easy to hack to act as a remotely controllable audio bug by anyone with nefarious intent.
Even worse, who's to say the stream couldn't be modified to make it seem like it "heard" child abuse, criminal activity, domestic violence, drug dealing...the possibilities are endless. How would you dispute a recording from one of these things where you were supposedly heard discussing (or confessing to) illegal activity? How would you prove it wasn't real?
If I was paranoid, I'd say that some intelligence organization is pushing these kinds of things in order to establish a covert surveillance network that could be used for all sorts of evil shit. But that's crazy, right? The CIA/FBI/NSA would never want a bunch of microphones in everyone's home, right?
Has anything happened this year that hasn't been an unmitigated disaster?
The Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter.
Scientists found the gene that is linked to ALS, which gets us one step closer to eliminating it.
Scientists also got us one step closer to a cure for HIV in 2016.
Cleveland finally won a championship in a major-league sport. Scientists predict this will not happen again for ~750 million years.
That's all I got.
Wait until Trump slaps $50 per phone tariff on their asses
Lol, like an extra $50 would stop a die-hard Apple fanboi from buying his or her new shiny.
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and tells them to keep their money overseas because it's neither wanted nor welcome here.
He'll tell them their money isn't welcome here? Oh yeah, that'll happen. Absolutely fer sure.
That's okay, with all the iPads and iPhones I've stolen I figure I'm way ahead of the curve.
I wish I could say "I'm shocked!", but I can't because I'm not.
Woah, I agree with you twice in one month. It must be something in the water. :)
But you're spot-on: you cannot tell if a closed source OS is secure or not. In fact, the safe bet would be to assume that it's not secure.
I stopped when the yuppies started using golf umbrellas that took up the entire sidewalk.
Ahhh, a fellow Seattleite? Are you freezing yer knobs off this morning too? It was 17 degrees out when I woke up. :(
But if you live in Seattle you would never actually use an umbrella.
This is true. I haven't owned an umbrella in at least 30 years; a good Goretex parka is all you really need.
So stupid.
Why would you be carrying an umbrella in the first place if you didn't expect it to rain?
Couldn't you check the weather report on any of 5000 weather sites, or god forbid, look out a fucking window?
This is an idiot's 'solution' to a non-existent problem.
(Fortunately for me, I live in Seattle- I know it's going to rain.)
Guess who's not buying an S8?
Me, for one. And that's too bad, I was actually considering it.
That may well be true...but there's a one-in-a-billion chance
Sure, but the odds of winning the Powerball are 1 in 292 million, so I'm not going to hold my breath.
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If a device is mod-friendly, and it becomes "the Echo you can mod", it's possible that it'll carve out a niche for itself..
Yes, I forgot how "mod-friendly" Microsoft has always been to the hacking/modding community. :)
He very well might be (and probably is) a very intelligent person, he just didn't study ancient Egypt.
Well, he says he did, and he says he believes that the pyramids were built to store grain. This is a breathtakingly stupid thing to come up with. Either he's wrong, or every Egyptologist, archeologist, and historian since the dawn of time who knows anything about Egypt is wrong.
It's such an astoundingly stupid thing to think that I hardly know where to begin. The Egyptian pyramids aren't even hollow. They're almost completely solid and usually only contain a few very small chambers, connected by long, narrow pathways. It would be delusional to think that they were built to store grain.
-
Now, why Trump wants him to head up HUD of all things, I have no idea. The only job that suits him is surgeon general.
With his whacky views and kooky religious beliefs, he's not even well suited to be surgeon general. The man is an idiot, except for one particular area of expertise. And the reason he has such a fantastic reputation is because he wrote a bunch of books wherein he claims to be a stellar surgeon.
His peers rank him as "good" or "skilled", but he's also been sued for malpractice at least 6 or 7 times. In one case, Carson was accused of bungling a surgery to replace a shunt in the brain of an 9-year-old girl, leaving her disfigured for life and partially paralyzed. In another case, he allegedly punctured his patient’s eardrums during an operation and forgot a sponge in her skull, which he later claimed was a tumor.
Is he suited to be surgeon general? I don't think so. And that's not even touching on his apocalyptic Seventh-day Adventist beliefs that "end times are likely upon us". I'm sorry, but the man is a lunatic.
Yeah, thanks HP....you're only about 20 years too late to the party.
What's HP's next innovative security move? Not passing SQL queries in the URL?
Carson might be Okay at hemming pants, Surgery and sewing go together.
Then the next time you need surgery just go see your tailor.
What is so special about that post anyway? What sort of extra special secret personal characteristics do you need for that job anyhow?
What is so special about cutting away some brain tissue? What sort of extra special secret personal characteristics (besides steady hands) do you need for that job anyhow?
Yeah, why have experience at all? It's stupid. That's why when I'm sick I go see a gardener, and when my car has a problem I take it to my plumber.
Republicans have somehow made a complete lack of experience into a positive qualification in politics. Is there anywhere else in life that rule would be taken seriously?
How do you know?
Because I live in the PNW, and have for the last 35+ years. The women here are generally not very friendly. They just aren't.
For one thing, they don't smile. In most of the US if you smile at a woman, she'll smile back. Out here you'll most likely get a tight-lipped grimace back. I've been all over the US and this is once of the only places I've ever been where the women simply don't smile.
Anywhere else in the US it seems like it's no problem to strike up a friendly conversation, but not here. The women here act like their shit don't stink and they make it clear that they're doing you a huge favor by lowering themselves to speak with you.
They mostly dress like grunge-fans, layers and layers of clothing and not a hint of femininity anywhere to be seen. You can walk around the malls and all over downtown and never once see a dress.
Yes, I'm generalizing, but the PNW has a reputation for the women here being uptight and unfriendly, and it's a well-deserved reputation.
We had no good choices.
We had one good choice, but the DNC stabbed him in the back and conspired to make sure he didn't get the nomination. And I will never, ever forgive them for that.
Ah, Windows...the RC Cola in the Pepsi-Coke wars of the mobile computing space.
Yeah, but unlike Windows, I like RC Cola.
"Microsoft's response to the Amazon Echo and Google Home is Home Hub, a software update for Windows 10's Cortana personal assistant that turns any Windows PC into a smart speaker of sorts."
No it's not. Based on Microsoft's track record it will be a poorly-designed, late-to-market, barely functional piece of shit that will garner no market share except for that of the die-hard Windows fanbois. After a year or two of disappointing reviews and craptastic software updates they'll discontinue it.
Once again the wizards at Microsoft see something that someone else designed and, true to form, all they can do is copy it. Poorly.
Really, Microsoft should change their slogan to, "Wait for us, we're the leader!"
Why would you? What ever made you think you could trust a doctor with a computer?
What ever made you think you could trust a doctor with the presidency, or a cabinet position like the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development?
And not to put too fine a point on it, but what ever made you think you could trust a reality show host with the presidency?
In all seriousness, I think that Ben Carson is an intelligent and accomplished man.
Ben Carson has single-handedly put to bed the notion that brain surgeons are smart people. And it was done pretty much by his own words and actions.
The fascinating part is that we now know you don't actually have to be very bright to do brain surgery. It's almost as if a person could be good at one thing and yet still be a total imbecile at everything else...
He might be a good brain surgeon, but I wouldn't let him fix my computer, tune my car, or hem my pants. And I sure as shit wouldn't let him "educate me" on what the pyramids of Egypt were built for.
I've kicked my way out of more than one car through a window, it's not that hard. :)
Plus there are all sorts of bits and pieces inside the car that you can break off to crack the glass. Pull off a headrest and use the metal prongs. Use the metal seatbelt tab to crack it. Tear off the rearview mirror and start bashing away.
Most places, but this story is from the Pacific North West.
Heh heh, so true.
She'd probably be wearing hiking boots or Birkenstocks. And if you stopped to help, she'd grimace at you and tell you to fuck off. Ask me how I know.
It would be useful sometimes, if it allowed me to populate the search field with one of their suggestions and add text to the suggestion BEFORE they do the search.
Ummm, it does. At least it does on my PC.
Start typing, use the arrow keys to move down to the suggestion you like, then type some more. You can revise the line as much as you like, backspace, add/remove words and text, etc.
Bingo. I'm gonna print this out and frame it.
I wish I could print a million copies and plaster one on the door of every developer everywhere.