If you consider SVN, GIT, or any code optimized source control, don't forget that many business users rely on the last date modified attribute of the file to determine versioning. Many source control systems don't care and don't store file modification dates (they store check in dates instead). This can be a show stopper. While as technical people we want to force the concept of version numbers on folks, it is just not in the culture of many business types.
(Disclaimer: I'm a member of Google's Android security team, but the above represents only my own opinions not an official statement. You can certainly believe that they're opinions I will be sharing/pushing internally, though.)
Sweet. Please consider taking this concept back to the team. On the unlock screen have three unlock codes: 1) The normal unlock code, 2) A "limited" unlock code that would allow access to a limited set of applications (and perhaps make the device look like it was mostly empty), 3) a "wipe" unlock code that wipes the device (or nukes the encryption key.) An additional "distress mode" unlock code could be useful as well - this mode would start audio and video streaming to some off-phone storage. The key feature is that these special modes are activated by entering an alternate unlock code (or pattern). That way if the officer (or adversary) is asking you for the code and entering it on your behalf, you would still be able to activate these features.
In that case the call center would have to have a way to route any given audio clip to the overhead public address system, because you know that certain audio clips just have to be heard by everyone in the room.
So, I imagine the 3rd party is like a big call center with a bunch of people in it. When you say the activation phrase, "OK TV" it connects your tv to somebody's terminal and they hear you say your commands "Channel 20, volume medium" and they push the remote control buttons on their terminal for you.
More likely the recognition software assigns a confidence score to its recognition. High levels of confidence for a command are just executed. Low levels of confidence are probably filed for human review - probably not in real time, but for later analysis to tune the software.
Also a Frontier customer in Oregon (as a result of the sale from Verizon). I have had no issues with service since the sale. I have both the FIOS and hard wire line service and they both work great.
A device that broadcast over sufficiently large range random flood of mouse clicks would be a very effective DoS tool in a corporate settings.
Or a device that broadcast a very specific non-random set of keystrokes. For example you could send the keystrokes to open up a command window followed by the keystrokes to download and execute malware. You could even send the keystrokes to type in the source code and compile the malware or a malware bootstrap process.
A special new "Add rule 'source,destination,timer'' packet is added, to be sent to a router. This causes the router to initiate a 3-way handshake with 'destination' to confirm that they requested the new rule, and if so, they add the rule to their table and set the expiration timer.
How would you prevent malicious use of the "do not send to the source/destination" packets?
While this is a nice list, are you prepared to to pay a lot more for every ticket in order to get the consistency that you want? Airline pricing is the way it is because it allows the airlines to make a mostly predictable profit under very thin margins. If the airlines are forced to adopt your list, they would still need to make a profit and would have to significantly increase ticket all prices to ensure their profit. This is because the current pricing model is vary dynamic (daily / hourly price changes) based on the expected number of passengers. You are suggesting the the pricing model no longer be dynamic. The airlines would not accept the risk of losing money and would have to increase the (proposed non-dynamic) prices.
And ya im pissed, i have had my debit card used 3 times in the last 2 years no don't tell me i should be using a CC i don't want to pay the extortion fees they charge not going to happen..
There are plenty of credit cards out there that have no annual fees. If you pay your bill on time and in full each month, you don't have to pay any interest or other kinds of fees. If you can't manage to remember to pay your bill on time, you can pre-pay your credit card. You might have other reasons to avoid the general advice of using credit cards over debit cards, but "extortion fees" isn't really a valid reason.
The idea behind the "increase power" and "repeat as necessary" parts was that if you increase power *enough*, you'll end up with line-of-sight, even if you didn't have it to start with.
I am glad someone got the joke. I considered talking about two modes of operation ("line of sight mode" and "make line of sight mode") instead of error correction algorithms, but I thought the error correction thing was more subtle and humorous. I guess it was too subtle. I don't plan on quitting my day job.
Lasers require line of sight, which is obviously a problem.
Not if you have the right error correction algorithm. If packet transmitted successfully, send next packet; otherwise increase power and try again. Repeat as necessary.
In concept making the.NET framework open source sounds cool. But, does making it open source mean that I can make a change to the framework, recompile it, distribute the binary framework along with my dependent application, and expect that someone else can just install my version of the framework and be good? Or does it mean that if I want to distribute a modified framework, I have to go through some sort of code signing process in order to allow it to run on someone else's computer? What would this signing process look like? In addition the assembly loader in.NET makes certain assumptions about version numbers of assemblies. It will be interesting to see how it works when due to multiple development paths, core assembly version numbers are not necessarily sequential / increasing over time.
Security and safety of my children came first, of course. Can the home(s) I'm looking at be connected to high-speed internet service was near the top of the list though. I have access to Cox and FiOS up to 150Mb, which meets my needs for the immediate future. Gigabit would be nice to have though...
When I purchased my house, I wrote availability of high speed Internet into the contract. This was 10 years ago at a time when the phone company would not tell you in advance if a particular address has DSL service available; the only way to know for sure was to put in an install order. My real estate agent whined that I couldn't put that in an offer, but I said, "Yes, I can. It is a contract and I can put in anything I want." I put it into the contract, ordered the DSL service, and once the DSL was turned up (which it did), the deal was done. Fiber has since come to my area so life is even better now.
Point of all this is that in my case, high speed Internet had a huge impact on the property value to me. No Internet means the property value is zero in my mind. Sounds like I am not alone.
I would suggest adding a fee to each bill that is clearly labeled "Government surveillance charge" to drive home the point and to remind customers of what is happening.
Or, are you saying that the crazy homeless guy on the street may in fact be making a valid point and we should give him equal time?
The crazy homeless guy on the street gets his "equal" time in proportion to his audience and the reception of his message from his audience. He has (and generally receives) the right to stand on the street corner and express his point (within reasonable civility constraints). While his point may or may not actually be valid, society in general has voted that it is not valid (because he is called crazy and is standing on the street corner and not in a lecture hall or in a more formal public venue.) The only real difference from an opinion expressed by a crazy on the street corner, a creationist at a university lecture, and published peer reviewed scientist is the size and caliber of the audience - in general "society's" opinion or "vote" on the message.
This discussion here on slashdot and the controversy on campus about this particular conference are part of the process of society reviewing the opinion of creation. While I personally don't believe in creation, at least not in the last ten thousand years / biblical sense, I am fine with civil discussion and debate of the topic on a university campus. That being said, it does need to be a civil discussion and there must be room for debate.
Of course, that doesn't work if you are using the phone to read Twitter while waiting in line, because seriously, what else are you expected to do while shuffling along?
I know my android device has a barometer, but I can't seem to figure out why. Sure it's kind of neat to be able to see the pressure graphed over time, but I don't think it's a big selling point on devices. Is it just a side effect of some other hardware that makes it easy to implement or something?
Accurate altitude detection? GPS altitude isn't that accurate (at least on cheap consumer level GPS receivers). I have a hand-held Garmin GPS targeted at hiking and it has a barometer built in for more accurate altitude. Perhaps phones are adding them for the same reason.
Good, but not for the reasons listed. I always thought Legos were better before all the "special" bricks and items. "Better" as in better for the imagination. Some of the sets these days are almost entirely custom pieces that are not useful for building things other than the picture on the box.
Thank you for mentioning that. I am a FIOS customer in the Washington, D.C. area. I regularly interact with remote machines at my employer in North Carolina. I have the Verizon FIOS 25/15 plan. During normal business hours, it works great. But starting in the late afternoon, usually around 5-6 pm every night, round trip times go to crap.
[...]
Have you experienced this kind of problem, and did it change after you installed your samknows box? Thanks...
I am in the Portland, Oregon area. When FIOS first came to the area it was put in by Verizon. Since then they have sold the assets to Frontier, who now runs my FIOS. My experience has been that I have always gotten full speed from my FIOS connection under both Verizon and Frontier and both before and after the SamKnows box was installed. I haven't seen a change in behavior. Note that I have had my FIOS service since 2007 and participated in SamKnows since 2010. The public NetFlix related complaints with Verizon FIOS are relatively recent, so I don't know if my continuing good performance is due to me now being on Frontier, the SamKnows box, or just good luck. I am also on a business FIOS connection (to get static IPs), so that may help as well. I have had excellent customer service with both Verizon and Frontier over the life of my FIOS connection.
I'm doing this because I'd like to think it helps the FCC keep the ISPs honest.
It probably also helps to ensure that *your* connection gets priority...
I have one of the boxes as well and ensuring that my ISP is motivated to give me good service was part of the reason I put it in. I also think that it is a good idea to have a FCC based performance monitoring infrastructure out there. While I don't think the program is monitoring user's activity, I am a bit on the paranoid side, so I don't run all my traffic through the box (which is a supported configuration.)
As an aside, I am on FIOS and according to the FCC monitor box, I almost always get my advertised speed. My gut feeling with day to day operation of my connection is that the FCC box is giving me real numbers.
Just yesterday I was chatting with a student in a programming class. She was complaining that she got in trouble for using language features that were "not taught yet" in the class. And this is exactly why the United States is falling behind in science and technology compared to other countries, because people are punished for self-education and innovation within our "education system"
What if the point of the lesson was to solve the problem within a set of constraints? While I am not fond of our education system's apparent drive to the least common denominator, I don't think this example is a good one to support the argument of the United States "falling behind".
For argument's sake, let's say that the lesson was to sort some data and the class had not yet covered the language's (or standard library) sort function. If the student used the built-in sort function instead of implementing the sort algorithm by hand, the student would not be demonstrating that they had learned the algorithm or understood the fundamentals of sorting. In addition, if the real requirement was to implement a sort that would run in other environments that don't have built-in sort, "being creative" and using out of scope features, would be a fail.
An exceptional student would have done the lesson the proper way (as instructed and within the constraints given), and in addition provided an alternate solution using the extended or not yet taught language features. This would demonstrate understanding of the solution with both the constraints given and what would be possible if the constraints were not in place.
If everyone pays a flat sales tax rate, the people who spend more will bear most of the economic burden.
So you are creating an incentive for everyone to pay less and you think that will somehow help the economy? Curious bit of logic you have there.
Please read the context of the thread. I am not advocating a flat sales tax. I was disputing the GP post that suggested a flat sales tax shifts the overall economic burden to the poor. A flat sales tax would impact the poor more than the rich in terms of percentage of income spent on taxes, but those who spend more (the rich) would shoulder more of the overall economic burden.
Slashdot Mirror
the average job offer these days is a toilet brush of bullshit
While I agree with the rest of your post, I have to ask: "How do you get a bull to use a toilet?"
If you consider SVN, GIT, or any code optimized source control, don't forget that many business users rely on the last date modified attribute of the file to determine versioning. Many source control systems don't care and don't store file modification dates (they store check in dates instead). This can be a show stopper. While as technical people we want to force the concept of version numbers on folks, it is just not in the culture of many business types.
(Disclaimer: I'm a member of Google's Android security team, but the above represents only my own opinions not an official statement. You can certainly believe that they're opinions I will be sharing/pushing internally, though.)
Sweet. Please consider taking this concept back to the team. On the unlock screen have three unlock codes: 1) The normal unlock code, 2) A "limited" unlock code that would allow access to a limited set of applications (and perhaps make the device look like it was mostly empty), 3) a "wipe" unlock code that wipes the device (or nukes the encryption key.) An additional "distress mode" unlock code could be useful as well - this mode would start audio and video streaming to some off-phone storage. The key feature is that these special modes are activated by entering an alternate unlock code (or pattern). That way if the officer (or adversary) is asking you for the code and entering it on your behalf, you would still be able to activate these features.
In that case the call center would have to have a way to route any given audio clip to the overhead public address system, because you know that certain audio clips just have to be heard by everyone in the room.
So, I imagine the 3rd party is like a big call center with a bunch of people in it. When you say the activation phrase, "OK TV" it connects your tv to somebody's terminal and they hear you say your commands "Channel 20, volume medium" and they push the remote control buttons on their terminal for you.
More likely the recognition software assigns a confidence score to its recognition. High levels of confidence for a command are just executed. Low levels of confidence are probably filed for human review - probably not in real time, but for later analysis to tune the software.
Also a Frontier customer in Oregon (as a result of the sale from Verizon). I have had no issues with service since the sale. I have both the FIOS and hard wire line service and they both work great.
It should be illegal to spoof caller ID. It's fraud.
Fraud is already illegal. Perhaps we should enforce that.
A device that broadcast over sufficiently large range random flood of mouse clicks would be a very effective DoS tool in a corporate settings.
Or a device that broadcast a very specific non-random set of keystrokes. For example you could send the keystrokes to open up a command window followed by the keystrokes to download and execute malware. You could even send the keystrokes to type in the source code and compile the malware or a malware bootstrap process.
A special new "Add rule 'source,destination,timer'' packet is added, to be sent to a router. This causes the router to initiate a 3-way handshake with 'destination' to confirm that they requested the new rule, and if so, they add the rule to their table and set the expiration timer.
How would you prevent malicious use of the "do not send to the source/destination" packets?
While this is a nice list, are you prepared to to pay a lot more for every ticket in order to get the consistency that you want? Airline pricing is the way it is because it allows the airlines to make a mostly predictable profit under very thin margins. If the airlines are forced to adopt your list, they would still need to make a profit and would have to significantly increase ticket all prices to ensure their profit. This is because the current pricing model is vary dynamic (daily / hourly price changes) based on the expected number of passengers. You are suggesting the the pricing model no longer be dynamic. The airlines would not accept the risk of losing money and would have to increase the (proposed non-dynamic) prices.
And ya im pissed, i have had my debit card used 3 times in the last 2 years no don't tell me i should be using a CC i don't want to pay the extortion fees they charge not going to happen..
There are plenty of credit cards out there that have no annual fees. If you pay your bill on time and in full each month, you don't have to pay any interest or other kinds of fees. If you can't manage to remember to pay your bill on time, you can pre-pay your credit card. You might have other reasons to avoid the general advice of using credit cards over debit cards, but "extortion fees" isn't really a valid reason.
The idea behind the "increase power" and "repeat as necessary" parts was that if you increase power *enough*, you'll end up with line-of-sight, even if you didn't have it to start with.
I am glad someone got the joke. I considered talking about two modes of operation ("line of sight mode" and "make line of sight mode") instead of error correction algorithms, but I thought the error correction thing was more subtle and humorous. I guess it was too subtle. I don't plan on quitting my day job.
Lasers require line of sight, which is obviously a problem.
Not if you have the right error correction algorithm. If packet transmitted successfully, send next packet; otherwise increase power and try again. Repeat as necessary.
In concept making the .NET framework open source sounds cool. But, does making it open source mean that I can make a change to the framework, recompile it, distribute the binary framework along with my dependent application, and expect that someone else can just install my version of the framework and be good? Or does it mean that if I want to distribute a modified framework, I have to go through some sort of code signing process in order to allow it to run on someone else's computer? What would this signing process look like? In addition the assembly loader in .NET makes certain assumptions about version numbers of assemblies. It will be interesting to see how it works when due to multiple development paths, core assembly version numbers are not necessarily sequential / increasing over time.
Security and safety of my children came first, of course. Can the home(s) I'm looking at be connected to high-speed internet service was near the top of the list though. I have access to Cox and FiOS up to 150Mb, which meets my needs for the immediate future. Gigabit would be nice to have though...
When I purchased my house, I wrote availability of high speed Internet into the contract. This was 10 years ago at a time when the phone company would not tell you in advance if a particular address has DSL service available; the only way to know for sure was to put in an install order. My real estate agent whined that I couldn't put that in an offer, but I said, "Yes, I can. It is a contract and I can put in anything I want." I put it into the contract, ordered the DSL service, and once the DSL was turned up (which it did), the deal was done. Fiber has since come to my area so life is even better now.
Point of all this is that in my case, high speed Internet had a huge impact on the property value to me. No Internet means the property value is zero in my mind. Sounds like I am not alone.
I would suggest adding a fee to each bill that is clearly labeled "Government surveillance charge" to drive home the point and to remind customers of what is happening.
Or, are you saying that the crazy homeless guy on the street may in fact be making a valid point and we should give him equal time?
The crazy homeless guy on the street gets his "equal" time in proportion to his audience and the reception of his message from his audience. He has (and generally receives) the right to stand on the street corner and express his point (within reasonable civility constraints). While his point may or may not actually be valid, society in general has voted that it is not valid (because he is called crazy and is standing on the street corner and not in a lecture hall or in a more formal public venue.) The only real difference from an opinion expressed by a crazy on the street corner, a creationist at a university lecture, and published peer reviewed scientist is the size and caliber of the audience - in general "society's" opinion or "vote" on the message.
This discussion here on slashdot and the controversy on campus about this particular conference are part of the process of society reviewing the opinion of creation. While I personally don't believe in creation, at least not in the last ten thousand years / biblical sense, I am fine with civil discussion and debate of the topic on a university campus. That being said, it does need to be a civil discussion and there must be room for debate.
Of course, that doesn't work if you are using the phone to read Twitter while waiting in line, because seriously, what else are you expected to do while shuffling along?
Reading Slashdot?
I know my android device has a barometer, but I can't seem to figure out why. Sure it's kind of neat to be able to see the pressure graphed over time, but I don't think it's a big selling point on devices. Is it just a side effect of some other hardware that makes it easy to implement or something?
Accurate altitude detection? GPS altitude isn't that accurate (at least on cheap consumer level GPS receivers). I have a hand-held Garmin GPS targeted at hiking and it has a barometer built in for more accurate altitude. Perhaps phones are adding them for the same reason.
An update to the Casio AT-550?
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Good, but not for the reasons listed. I always thought Legos were better before all the "special" bricks and items. "Better" as in better for the imagination. Some of the sets these days are almost entirely custom pieces that are not useful for building things other than the picture on the box.
Get your special pieces off my lawn.
Thank you for mentioning that. I am a FIOS customer in the Washington, D.C. area. I regularly interact with remote machines at my employer in North Carolina. I have the Verizon FIOS 25/15 plan. During normal business hours, it works great. But starting in the late afternoon, usually around 5-6 pm every night, round trip times go to crap.
[...]
Have you experienced this kind of problem, and did it change after you installed your samknows box? Thanks...
I am in the Portland, Oregon area. When FIOS first came to the area it was put in by Verizon. Since then they have sold the assets to Frontier, who now runs my FIOS. My experience has been that I have always gotten full speed from my FIOS connection under both Verizon and Frontier and both before and after the SamKnows box was installed. I haven't seen a change in behavior. Note that I have had my FIOS service since 2007 and participated in SamKnows since 2010. The public NetFlix related complaints with Verizon FIOS are relatively recent, so I don't know if my continuing good performance is due to me now being on Frontier, the SamKnows box, or just good luck. I am also on a business FIOS connection (to get static IPs), so that may help as well. I have had excellent customer service with both Verizon and Frontier over the life of my FIOS connection.
https://www.samknows.com/
I'm doing this because I'd like to think it helps the FCC keep the ISPs honest.
It probably also helps to ensure that *your* connection gets priority...
I have one of the boxes as well and ensuring that my ISP is motivated to give me good service was part of the reason I put it in. I also think that it is a good idea to have a FCC based performance monitoring infrastructure out there. While I don't think the program is monitoring user's activity, I am a bit on the paranoid side, so I don't run all my traffic through the box (which is a supported configuration.)
As an aside, I am on FIOS and according to the FCC monitor box, I almost always get my advertised speed. My gut feeling with day to day operation of my connection is that the FCC box is giving me real numbers.
Just yesterday I was chatting with a student in a programming class. She was complaining that she got in trouble for using language features that were "not taught yet" in the class. And this is exactly why the United States is falling behind in science and technology compared to other countries, because people are punished for self-education and innovation within our "education system"
What if the point of the lesson was to solve the problem within a set of constraints? While I am not fond of our education system's apparent drive to the least common denominator, I don't think this example is a good one to support the argument of the United States "falling behind".
For argument's sake, let's say that the lesson was to sort some data and the class had not yet covered the language's (or standard library) sort function. If the student used the built-in sort function instead of implementing the sort algorithm by hand, the student would not be demonstrating that they had learned the algorithm or understood the fundamentals of sorting. In addition, if the real requirement was to implement a sort that would run in other environments that don't have built-in sort, "being creative" and using out of scope features, would be a fail.
An exceptional student would have done the lesson the proper way (as instructed and within the constraints given), and in addition provided an alternate solution using the extended or not yet taught language features. This would demonstrate understanding of the solution with both the constraints given and what would be possible if the constraints were not in place.
If everyone pays a flat sales tax rate, the people who spend more will bear most of the economic burden.
So you are creating an incentive for everyone to pay less and you think that will somehow help the economy? Curious bit of logic you have there.
Please read the context of the thread. I am not advocating a flat sales tax. I was disputing the GP post that suggested a flat sales tax shifts the overall economic burden to the poor. A flat sales tax would impact the poor more than the rich in terms of percentage of income spent on taxes, but those who spend more (the rich) would shoulder more of the overall economic burden.