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User: Albanach

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Comments · 1,494

  1. Re:What kind of encryption did the FBI break? on Judge Orders Child Porn Suspect To Decrypt His Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    I'd hazard a guess that "an intricate electronic folder structure" means folders that were categorized. As opposed to everything living in ~/Downloads

    One scenario might be subject to speculation that it was not a consequence of the user's deliberate actions, the other could be used to argue something more significant. Intent may be an issue at trial and a categorized folder structure would be relevant to showing intent.

    I am not a lawyer.

  2. Re:Discontinued? on Google's Nexus Q Successor Hits the FCC · · Score: 1

    It wasn't really discontinued, since it was never really launched.

    Frankly it's something lots of other manufacturers could learn from - even when you're ready and about to launch, if you realize the product is below par it's better to count your loses than to launch something substandard.

  3. Re:Sucks on Has Google Shut Down SMS Search? · · Score: 1

    Not many people even *provide* 2G anymore, and not anyone who has 2G is going to be posting on slashdot.

    I live in a US city of 100,000. I can get 3G coverage in a circle with a radius of around 3 miles. Beyond that, I can go 30 miles in any direction and have 2G coverage only.

    Your idea that nobody provides 2G coverage is simply wrong. It's widely provided and is the default for many.

  4. Re:Sucks on Has Google Shut Down SMS Search? · · Score: 1

    Your sentance doesn't really make sense, so I'm not sure what you mean.

    If someone doesn't have a data plan, or is romaing and doesn't have access to data, what are your suggestions? There are other 411 services, but I haven't found one as fast or as accurate as Google's was.

    Similarly, the SMS service provided an alternative way to conduct a simple google search. It wasn't a substitute for Google, but if you needed a number for the hotel you're staying at, or for the restaurant you're meeting someone at, it was a great tool.

    Even if you do have data access, 2G is still common across much of the U.S. and frankly either of those two options was often quicker and more reliable than waiting for pages to load if you were in an area with poor coverage.

    This is not about relying on these services, it's about appreciating them while they were available and recognizing that closing them removes a service that can't simply be replaced by a website - since their very existence was a recognition that the web is not always best.

  5. Re:Sucks on Has Google Shut Down SMS Search? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's quite disappointing given they already abolished the Google 411 service. There are still plenty of folk without data plans, or who find themselves roaming where they have minutes and text messages but no data.

    I understand Google's desire to move the world forward, but often these interfaces were useful, and sometimes they were they only interface available.

    The idea that this is down to focusing on other products really doesn't wash. The products were both stable and likely taking almost no resources to maintain. If they did need anything to support them, I doubt it would be beyond the capability of an intern.

  6. Re:Google play tech support is good. on Barnes & Noble Adds Google Play Store To the Nook · · Score: 1

    Regarding diagrams in kindle books, this is a pervasive problem. I have purchased several academic texts that have been unusable due to the low resolution.

    One book had a series of tables that had been printed landscape in the original, still in landscape in the e-book version. You can imagine what this means, you can't just turn your phone or tablet 90 degrees or it autorotates, so now you need to turn off the auto-rotation each time you read that book. What a pain.

    Too many companies have tried to make e-versions of existing titles on the cheap.

  7. Re:Everyone should switch to IAX2 then... on British Telecom Claims Patents on VOIP Session Initiation Protocol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All ITSPs then should ditch SIP for PSTN trunking and move to support IAX2.

    That would be to presume none of these patents implicate IAX2. After all, they're not claiming a patent on SIP, they're claiming patents on what SIP does. Providers would want to be sure IAX2 is not going to be found to be infringing before making the effort to migrate.

    What would be better would be concerted work on having as many of these patents invalidated as possible. Hopefully the remaining ones can then be worked around.

  8. Re:We Wish on Ask Slashdot: What If We Don't Run Out of Oil? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    even though the evidence now points to there being plenty of oil?

    So let's say we take the high end estimate. 11 billion barrels of shale oil available.

    Current US oil consumption runs around 19 million barrels per day. You just discovered enough oil to last the United States for twenty months.

    I guess you might be correct, for very small values of plenty.

  9. Re:Good, very good on Windows Store In-App Ad Revenue Plummets · · Score: 1

    Thanks, this is pretty much what I figured. Ad revenue is tiny.

    I imagine the likes of slate, which obviously has a huge number of readers, it's possible to make money. But equally it should be profitable to sell an ad-free version very cheaply and still make more money.

    What had me curious was the shift to pay-walls for newspapers. Many seem to have gone from trying to be ad supported to being a dollar or several dollars per week. The leap seems to be huge. Of course it may simply be that they were hugely loss making before and this is really necessary to break even. I just know that I am not alone in simply ignoring many of these sites now, because I never visited often enough to justify dollars per month, but might have paid $5 per year.

  10. Re:Good, very good on Windows Store In-App Ad Revenue Plummets · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, I'm curious. What sort of revenue can you expect from adds from a user?

    Say I use an app like the Slate.com app and read 6 articles a day. Plus the menu page, that's seven possible impressions. Maybe they'll be obnoxious and split some articles over two pages, so maybe 10 impressions. Let's say I'm religious about this app and use it every day. So you serve me 3,650 adverts per year.

    Are you paid on ad views or clicks? What sort of revenue would you expect from one user who sees just shy of 4,000 adverts per year?

    I'm trying to figure out what the value of a non-ad version of some popular free apps should be.

  11. Re:One area the UK got right on Variably Sunny: SCOTUS Allows Local FOIA Restrictions · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No one is ever denied care for lack of insurance in the emergency room.

    That's simply not true. The ER does have to provide emergency care to stabilize a patient. If, however, you have cancer you can't just go to the ER for treatment. If you need an organ transplant to live you won't get one in the United States without some form of insurance/state coverage to pay for the operation and the ongoing costs. As your liver fails, you will be able to go to the ER to try and help reduce the toxins in your bloodstream or stem excessive bleeding. But once your life is no longer in danger and you are considered stabilized, you can be dischaged - even though the doctos know your only hope for survival is a transplant.

    If you are older and break a bone, the ER will treat you and set the bone in a cast whether or not you have insurance. They won't however cover the cost of physiotherapy to help you walk again afterwards.

    There are many who visit horpital emergency rooms and are denied the care they need to function or indeed to live.The largest for-profit network of hospitals, HCA, now demand up-front payment from ER patients if their condition is deemed to be not a true emergency.

  12. Re:Brilliant on New OpenWRT Drops Support For Linux 2.4, Low-Mem Devices · · Score: 2

    I don't know, 11 year old routers might be pretty uncommon.

    You can buy a wrt-54gl (the model with the original, larger, flash and ram) new from Amazon, today. Your netgear model is double the price.

  13. One area the UK got right on Variably Sunny: SCOTUS Allows Local FOIA Restrictions · · Score: 2

    While it took much longer for the UK to get a freedom of information act., it does seem much more powerful than that available in the US.

    There's no cost for most inquiries (where the cost to the government body to respond is less than £600. It covers the bulk of public bodies. Anyone, anywhere on the world can use it. Replies are expected within 20 business days.

    Combined with the Data Protection Act, and it seems UK citizens have far greater rights and protections when it comes to personal and public data than who live in the United States.

    That's not to say the UK FOIA is perfect, far from it. Exceptions are too wide, and some government bodies can be obstructive. Still it has delivered useful information that would likely not have been discovered otherwise.

  14. Re:Hashed and salted is obsolete on LivingSocial Hacked: 50 Million Users Exposed · · Score: 1

    Can you explain this a bit more?

    If the hackers didn't get the salt, and only have the salted hashes, and let's say the salt is, say, a 20 character random phrase using numbers, letters and symbols, what is the weak spot?

    I'm sure many /. users are implementing systems like this using salted hashes, so if there's an inherent weakness (other than the salt becoming exposed) I'm sure it would be useful if there was a straightforward explanation.

  15. Re:The problem isn't just supply on Device Keeps Liver Alive Outside Body For 24 Hours · · Score: 1

    I'm going to go out on a short, cynical limb and guess...

    I think you may have guessed wrong. This page states that the costs of harvesting the organ is borne by the recipient/the recipient's insurance. If correct, it is very much in the interests of the hospital harvesting the donor organs for them to be used rather than discarded. There would be no economic motivation to harvest an organ that they know will not be used.

  16. The problem isn't just supply on Device Keeps Liver Alive Outside Body For 24 Hours · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is quite specific to liver transplants in the United States. Here most patients who die while awaiting a liver transplant have had an offer of a donor liver. 55% of patients who die have had the offer of a high-quality donor liver.

    Increasing supply will always be a good thing, but there are huge issues to be addressed in making sure those on the US wait list for a liver transplant actually get a transplant from the available organ supply. It seems patients and doctors are turning down way too many good organs.

    "Our data show that the current liver allocation system has provided one or more transplant opportunities to nearly all candidates before death/delisting. Therefore, simply increasing the availability of de-ceased donor livers or the number of offers may not substantially reduce wait-list mortality." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22841780

  17. Re:Way to miss the mark Amazon. on Amazon Nears Debut of Original TV Shows · · Score: 1

    This exactly. For younger kids, older than 1st grade but younger than teen/pre-teen there are almost no dramas. Nothing with actors at all. Take a look at netflix/redbox family selections. There are almost no decent movies aimed at the age group that aren't Disney/Pixar cartoons.

  18. Re: Truth is the best defence on British Woman's Twitter Comments Spark Expensive Libel Claims · · Score: 1

    I think you are confused. Malicious intent can undermine a defense based on fair comment - i.e. that the publisher was expressing a reasonably held opinion. Malicious intent does not undermine a defense of truth. See this and this.

    Note that I am not a lawyer. This is just what I could gather from five minutes with the google.

  19. Re:The Truth is Never Libelous on British Woman's Twitter Comments Spark Expensive Libel Claims · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong. The truth is an absolute defense against libel in the United States of America . But if you read a little closer you will see that this woman is British, and British libel and defamation laws [wikipedia.org] are nothing like their American counterparts.

    I am not a lawyer. That said, do you have anything to back this up with?

    Certainly there's one advantage to the English law in that if you're faced with a frivolous suit you can contest it and if you win the other side will typically bear your costs. In the US if you're sued you need to defend the case at your own expense.

    You seem to suggest that truth is not a defense under English law. Everything I have read suggests otherwise. Can you point to an instance of someone actually being punished for making a statement the court found to be true? Certainly the US laws provide greater defenses for a statement that would be classified as an opinion, but truth does appear to be an affirmative defense in England.

    A claim of defamation is defeated if the defendant proves that the statement was true.

    The main defence to a libel action is ‘justification' i.e. being able to prove that the defamatory allegation is true.

    It is a complete defence to an action for defamation to prove that the defamatory statement is substantially true. It is not necessary for a defendant to show that there was a public interest in publication and it does not matter whether he or she acted maliciously.

  20. Re:Slippery slope. on Bruce Schneier On the Marathon Bomber Manhunt · · Score: 1

    Funny how you compare a mean (one fatality per day) to a one time event

    Have there been new developments since I last checked? I was under the impression death is normally a one-time event.

  21. Re:Slippery slope. on Bruce Schneier On the Marathon Bomber Manhunt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am, for example, *FAR* more likely to be run down by a taxi or MUNI bus while crossing the street downtown than I am to be killed in any kind of terrorist attack.

    Massachusetts averages less than one traffic fatality per day. If you were in the Boston area yesterday, it would not be an unreasonable calculation to think the risk of being killed by a terrorist - who was known to be armend, dangerous and in the immediate vicinity - was at least as high and potentially much higher than that of being run down while driving or crossing the street.

  22. Re:Nor surprising and won't matter. on Businesses Moving From Amazon's Cloud To Build Their Own · · Score: 1

    Does your payback time include any costs for hardware administration/maintenance?

    It costs money through time in sourcing and installing hardware. It costs you to keep spare equipment that can take over in the event of hardware failure. These all need factored in. It's common when buying a box to overspec, anticipating future growth, whereas on a service like Amazon you can click and upgrade your hardware capacity when you need it.

    I think there are also fewer well managed co-location sites that have good connectivity and who are interested in customers needing only a few U of space.

    I'm not saying that there aren't advantages to hosting yourself but in my experience there are lots of costs saved by using cloud based servers that often get overlooked from the accounting equations.

  23. Re:More person, more cost. Fine. on Samoa Air Rolling Out "Pay As You Weigh" Fares · · Score: 1

    So no excuse for charging more for a 50lb bag than a 30lb bag? I hear some crappy airlines do that.

    Probably not if you deliver the bag to the plane yourself and stow it in the hold for them.

    If the airline are contracting to an airport where they pay a baggage handling firm, they probably pay extra fees for heavier bags. For over-sized bags, there can be a limit as to how many can even be stored on some planes.

  24. Re:More person, more cost. Fine. on Samoa Air Rolling Out "Pay As You Weigh" Fares · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do Americans keep accepting this excuse?

    The entire East Coast has a population density easily capable of sustaining high-speed rail if you looks at the density metrics from other countries that have it, yet it doesn't exist there either.

    Sure, Chicago to Washington might not be the most populous route - though you could connect several large cities and reduce the travel time between them to under 2 hours which might be good for commerce. But it's not like there's high speed rail anywhere.

    When the feds offered money for states to role it out as part of the stimulus, Republican governors rejected the offer in seconds.

  25. Re:They all suck badly on Another Way Carriers Screw Customers: Premium SMS 'Errors' · · Score: 1

    You don't need to do much research. T-mobile have a plan advertised on their site for $35/month offering 100 minutes with 'unlimited' text and 3G internet. If you don't call much from your cell phone, but do value the text and data part, it's a good option.