Apple counsel gets called into court, ordered to make special firmware that can be installed on anyone's phone by FBI agents, without Apple supervision. Existence of this firmware is not to be revealed to public. Existence of this court order is not to be revealed to public.
FBI uses this to quietly solve some difficult cases, much high-fiving.
Then FBI agent unknowingly allows a copy to be stolen by his mistress, who sells it to her drug dealer. Another gives a copy to his buddy, a former agent turned private-eye. Another (double-agent) gives a copy to his Russian handler.
Within two months, most foreign intelligence agencies have copies Within a year, ISIS, Mafia, Yakuza, Mexican drug lords, and an unknown number of random hackers have copies.
Because your phone can't tell whether the person cracking the passcode is an FBI agent with a warrant, or a common thief. If there are special keys to let other people break into your phone, it can't tell whether they're supposed to have them or not. Your phone isn't secure unless there's no such special key.
This isn't rocket science: If anyone else can unlock your phone, anyone else can unlock your phone.
Terahertz signals would only reach 10's to maybe 100 meters, AND they're blocked by metal or water. (i.e. a human standing next to the router might cause significant signal loss). Probably good enough for indoor use, though --- at 100 gbps you could afford to retransmit lost packets.
FTA: "You [i.e. rich hipster techies] are killing this city!"
It may have ostensibly been about privacy, but clearly it was also about resentment towards tech-industry aristos displacing everyone else, with their private busses and their artisanal vodkas and fancy gadgets and most of all their ability to pay obscene rents and stay in The City rather than commuting in from Gilroy.
This is all about small time investors and the attitude that somebody with a spare hundred dollars is incapable of being able to make an informed decision about a potential investment opportunity.
Sounds more like the attitude that somebody with a spare hundred dollars should give the government $12 before they do anything else with it..
I can't believe I'm reading stuff like this from people on Slashdot of all places.
Why can't my washing machine/dryer/microwave send my cellphone an alert when it's done and I'm in another room?
Why can't I turn on the lights at home from the grocery store so I don't have to carry my groceries in while it's dark?
Why can't I turn on the jacuzzi during a rough day at work so it's ready when I get home?
... etc.
Why can't hackers turn my microwave/dryer/jacuzzi heater on when I'm not home and burn up the heating elements (and possibly my house)? Why can't they open the blinds and windows while I am in my undergarments? Why can't they set my fridge to 70 degrees and spoil all my food (then set it back down to normal before I get home, so I won't know until I eat the food) ? Why can't they turn the sprinklers on and flood my backyard? Why can't they make my lights randomly flash on and off at 2AM to annoy me (while the surround-sound blasts Barry Manilow and ignores my volume remote) ?
The reason why US politics is like this nowadays is because bribery is legal....To fix that and many other problems, we first need to get money out of politics
We can't get money out of politics when voters keep voting for whoever spends the most on television advertisements. God forbid voters actually read about the candidates, from sources that don't just echo their current views back to them.
A company's sole purpose is to increase shareholder value; as defined by the shareholders. Some companies include things beyond a financial return, or believe being socially responsible results in greater returns; but in any case they driver is still shareholder value and shareholders ultimately vote with their wallets.
WRONG.
A sane company's purpose should be to:
Provide a good or service that delights customers. Make enough money doing it that they can fairly compensate their suppliers and employees. Put most of the remaining profits back into long-term investments. Borrow from (and repay) shareholders as little as possible.
We lost sight of that a few decades ago, which is why our economy remains in the crapper. We won't be able to fix it until we realize that customers and employees are more important than short-term shareholders.
SalesForce is a company. Their job is to make money for their share holders.
That attitude has been destroying the U.S. economy since the 1970's. The priorities of any sane company should be:
1. Provide a good or service that delights customers 2. Make enough money doing it to pay your vendors and employees fairly 3. Reinvest most of the profits in ways that will provide long-term benefit (capital upgrades, employee training, etc.) 4. If you are publicly traded, pay shareholders just enough that they don't dump your stock
If SalesForce were focused on the first three, then unless they're already at 100% market saturation, they could find profitable new tasks for those workers. They have chosen not to, because "shareholder value" is more important to them.
Lookup tables, for processor-intensive tasks (image recognition, 3d scanning, gaze tracking, etc.) that your phone's processor is too lazy to do in realtime.
Because humans (at least a subset of them) overvalue social status. Social status is always a scarce, zero-sum commodity, regardless of material abundance. If you sleep on a flat rock and your rival sleeps on the ground, you win. If you have a starship and your rival has ten, you lose.
Slashdot Mirror
"In the not-too-distant future, next SundayXXX 4 million AD ... (la la la)"
Apple counsel gets called into court, ordered to make special firmware that can be installed on anyone's phone by FBI agents, without Apple supervision.
Existence of this firmware is not to be revealed to public. Existence of this court order is not to be revealed to public.
FBI uses this to quietly solve some difficult cases, much high-fiving.
Then FBI agent unknowingly allows a copy to be stolen by his mistress, who sells it to her drug dealer.
Another gives a copy to his buddy, a former agent turned private-eye.
Another (double-agent) gives a copy to his Russian handler.
Within two months, most foreign intelligence agencies have copies
Within a year, ISIS, Mafia, Yakuza, Mexican drug lords, and an unknown number of random hackers have copies.
Because your phone can't tell whether the person cracking the passcode is an FBI agent with a warrant, or a common thief.
If there are special keys to let other people break into your phone, it can't tell whether they're supposed to have them or not.
Your phone isn't secure unless there's no such special key.
This isn't rocket science: If anyone else can unlock your phone, anyone else can unlock your phone.
Terahertz signals would only reach 10's to maybe 100 meters, AND they're blocked by metal or water.
(i.e. a human standing next to the router might cause significant signal loss). Probably good enough
for indoor use, though --- at 100 gbps you could afford to retransmit lost packets.
Sorry, we're looking for Rockstar developers.
Does your definition of 'Rockstar' include Ringo ?
Clearly we just need a small set of POSIX apps to do 'git, 'make' and 'gcc' on your phone.
Download the signed source code from the app store.
No, everyone's switching to Rai Stones.
You leave them on whatever Pacific Island they were quarried on, and just update the ownership record.
Oh sorry, is that the wrong kind of creationism?
FTA: "You [i.e. rich hipster techies] are killing this city!"
It may have ostensibly been about privacy, but clearly it was also about resentment towards tech-industry aristos displacing everyone else,
with their private busses and their artisanal vodkas and fancy gadgets and most of all their ability to pay obscene rents and stay in The City
rather than commuting in from Gilroy.
For people who want to be great at some tangible pursuit: software, race-car driving, etc., money gets less and less effective as a motivator.
For people whose primary goal is to "win" by taking money away from their rivals, money only gets MORE effective.
This is all about small time investors and the attitude that somebody with a spare hundred dollars is incapable of being able to make an informed decision about a potential investment opportunity.
Sounds more like the attitude that somebody with a spare hundred dollars should give the government $12 before they do anything else with it..
I can't believe I'm reading stuff like this from people on Slashdot of all places.
Why can't my washing machine/dryer/microwave send my cellphone an alert when it's done and I'm in another room?
Why can't I turn on the lights at home from the grocery store so I don't have to carry my groceries in while it's dark?
Why can't I turn on the jacuzzi during a rough day at work so it's ready when I get home?
Why can't hackers turn my microwave/dryer/jacuzzi heater on when I'm not home and burn up the heating elements (and possibly my house)?
Why can't they open the blinds and windows while I am in my undergarments?
Why can't they set my fridge to 70 degrees and spoil all my food (then set it back down to normal before I get home, so I won't know until I eat the food) ?
Why can't they turn the sprinklers on and flood my backyard?
Why can't they make my lights randomly flash on and off at 2AM to annoy me (while the surround-sound blasts Barry Manilow and ignores my volume remote) ?
"There's a leek in the greenhouse module!!"
Related question: how do you stay in the loop if you can't afford to go out to lunch with them and have to brown-bag it?
Most of the visuals were great ; but I could not take the Dark Elf-a-tubbies seriously. "Eh oh! Time for Midgard bye-bye!"
The reason why US politics is like this nowadays is because bribery is legal. ...To fix that and many other problems, we first need to get money out of politics
We can't get money out of politics when voters keep voting for whoever spends the most on television advertisements.
God forbid voters actually read about the candidates, from sources that don't just echo their current views back to them.
That's comet Siding Spring not ISON.
Also, they've collected more data that shows it'll miss Mars by at least 66,000 km.
A company's sole purpose is to increase shareholder value; as defined by the shareholders. Some companies include things beyond a financial return, or believe being socially responsible results in greater returns; but in any case they driver is still shareholder value and shareholders ultimately vote with their wallets.
WRONG.
A sane company's purpose should be to:
Provide a good or service that delights customers.
Make enough money doing it that they can fairly compensate their suppliers and employees.
Put most of the remaining profits back into long-term investments.
Borrow from (and repay) shareholders as little as possible.
We lost sight of that a few decades ago, which is why our economy remains in the crapper.
We won't be able to fix it until we realize that customers and employees are more important than short-term shareholders.
SalesForce is a company. Their job is to make money for their share holders.
That attitude has been destroying the U.S. economy since the 1970's. The priorities of any sane company should be:
1. Provide a good or service that delights customers
2. Make enough money doing it to pay your vendors and employees fairly
3. Reinvest most of the profits in ways that will provide long-term benefit (capital upgrades, employee training, etc.)
4. If you are publicly traded, pay shareholders just enough that they don't dump your stock
If SalesForce were focused on the first three, then unless they're already at 100% market saturation, they could find profitable new tasks for those workers.
They have chosen not to, because "shareholder value" is more important to them.
Lookup tables, for processor-intensive tasks (image recognition, 3d scanning, gaze tracking, etc.) that your phone's processor is too lazy to do in realtime.
and we pay extra to eat them
Suppose your medical records were DRM'd and later became inaccessible?
And when those who provide, create and actually work refuse to give those who are lazy and do nothing the fruits of their efforts what then?
You mean the robots? Either they become sentient, rise up and kill us ; or they keep blindly churning out manufactured goods.
Because humans (at least a subset of them) overvalue social status. Social status is always a scarce, zero-sum commodity, regardless of material abundance. If you sleep on a flat rock and your rival sleeps on the ground, you win. If you have a starship and your rival has ten, you lose.
He should've taken the name 'Peter Gabriel' ; then he could be so much larger than life...