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User: bussdriver

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  1. Echelon on Canadians, Too, Should Demand Surveillance Answers · · Score: 1

    Echelon is old, we've progressed to admission and some disclosure - for decades you were a conspiracy nutcase they would dismiss if you even mentioned "Echelon". Then a few nations admitted it's existence on record and how they planned to quit, all while the USA denied the whole thing and still dismissed you as a conspiracy nut.

    Bush did the 1st "non-Echelon" spying, illegally and we somehow ignored all that and passed a law to allow it and then passed one to prevent suing the conspirators (that part during Obama I believe. ATnT gave the Dems a lot of money.)

    The change is that they are not denying it anymore and are welcoming debate; but long after it was legalized. Hope was always just a marketing word, all the way back to when Clinton used it.

  2. More like, get hurt by a sword, pick up a sword on The Strange History of Apple and FlatWorld · · Score: 2

    Apple wasn't huge on patents until a stupid patent lost them a bundle on the 1st iPod. After that, Apple patented anything and everything then entered into the fray. Remember they could have owned everything related to a GUI, Xerox sold them all the prior work.

  3. Recursion on Fear of Death Makes People Into Believers (of Science) · · Score: 1

    If one defines evil as a hack on the human brain to get it to act antisocially rather than some former 'pagan' god, PAN (see roots of devil.) Definitions along this line would be similar to conspiracy; a conspiracy being conscious planning for nefarious deed(s) by 1+ people, evil would not require any planning or external motive.

    Therefore, killing to defend oneself is arguably one of the most evil beliefs:

    Once "kill to defend" belief is accepted you can conclude a seemingly never ending list of defensive actions... including preemptive defensive actions... AKA an offense; however, it seems that believers in the "justified defense" can extend their definition of defense to it's exact antonym, so it is still "defense".

    A simple precept so easily iterated with the same process from one person's issue or scaling up to whole societies.

    Given a slight rewording and the above:

    "Killing to defend oneself against evil," becomes recursive.

    Similar thinking is the basis for many religious originated philosophies. The only way to win, is not to play at all. Obviously, religions do not study the meanings of their own scriptures because they fail to apply the philosophy, which is the only valuable aspect to them (this is especially sad for the major ones which contain little actual philosophy for them to fuck up.) If survival is your highest value then risking one's existence by taking the higher ground seems foolish.

    Just felt like touching on just 1 of the popular assertions that go on blindly accepted no differently than many religious superstitions.

  4. Re:Please if some FreeBSD dev sees this... on FreeBSD 8.4 Released · · Score: 2

    If you read about ASLR and I recommend the OpenBSD paper on the topic (I think they implemented it 1st) the technique only makes it more difficult, it doesn't SOLVE the problem. If you benefit from ASLR, then you have a security problem already. I'm not sure I like the idea of losing entropy and slowing down malloc for something that does little to stop attacks from rogue processes (which can be compromised by other methods.)

    Sure, I might prefer you DoS some process by crashing it repeatedly instead of taking control over it... but I would prefer you not corrupt or crash it at all and I would want more effort put into better jails and damage control. Removing strcpy and other common trouble makers like OpenBSD does would be nice. ASLR adds to the level of complacency (except on OpenBSD where paranoia is expected.)

    The goals should be what they always were. New buzzwords be dammed.

    NOTE: I'm years behind on my BSD.
    I'm not convinced we shouldn't be moving towards microkernel hybrids like Darwin and towards a full microkernel. We took a big speed loss going to protected memory management which was accelerated in hardware and new CPUs made the transition almost unnoticeable. Maybe we should be aiming for something similar? (just isolating most drivers would help; you could leave the FS and HD within the kernel.) I also hate to think of how cool it could have been in Multics was used in place of unix... every unix has been more bloated for decades and I would love to swap RAM, CPUs, etc without rebooting. I find netBSD's work on including an interpreter in the kernel to be interesting in a shocking kind of way. Anyhow, the point is that ASLR is just a niche band-aid and not the most important feature we "must have" to continue living... and we've survived for decades without it. Such complaints sound more like an IT person speaking.

  5. The problem with these expert panels is on Ask Slashdot: What Will IT Departments Look Like In 5 Years? · · Score: 1

    They tend to get people for the panels who think in a similar fashion. The 1 person who organizes the speakers can easily fail to find or even recognize the full range of diversity of experts - plus they have to actually show up. Some will go into a herd mentality on topics that they don't feel as strongly about VS the credentials of the others.

    To the MBAs running business, IT is a resented burden that adds OVERHEAD. This opinion is near universal at this point. The building janitors are in the same boat but they cost less and when robotics gets better... out go the janitors! (if not already replaced with illegal immigrants on the excuse that "Natives don't want THOSE jobs.")

    Without changes to the culture, it is quite clear where the future of IT will be-- right next to the janitors of today. Cleaning services are often used over an in house staff; IT services will be similar and in many places they are at least partially.

    Internet services (AKA the naturally innocuous soft fluffy "Cloud") not only gives a false sense of stability/security, but it removes the related support services. No longer pay per-computer fees or deal with a site license, just subscribe and never deal with that again! It's like your cell phone you LOVE to get for free with your 3 year contract you gladly pay 4x as much for as your land line (which costs more to maintain.)

  6. Mod parent up. on Seeking Fifth Amendment Defenders · · Score: 1

    The article is flame bait; except, it was so long and serious sounding I think they must just be total fools. Not worth our attention unless running for office or gaining too much traction with idiots.

  7. Sorry but your body is not one of the 10 family .. on Microsoft Confirms Xbox One's Phone Home Requirement, Game Resale Rules · · Score: 1

    It is a "feature" when it can spot the body and profile of the 10 family members they mention.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they had an error in the system somewhere for "Your body profile doesn't match the 10 family members on file. Would you like to pay for an account?"

  8. it is about Freedom on The Amish Are Getting Fracked · · Score: 2

    It does not matter if they are a cult or neo-nazi. They have a right to not be fracked by the powerful and the protection of those rights applies to us all. We shouldn't have to fight to keep our own rights either but we MUST do our part to protect the rights of others so they do not have to go it alone.

    The ideals that make the system work are dead. Mammon is the dominant religion and it's values trump all the old ideals. All hail the book of Rand!

  9. Not the same on New All-Solid Sulfur Based Battery Outperforms Lithium Ion · · Score: 1

    Gas is oxidized. A totally different chemical process. No comparison. When they get working AIR batteries figured out then you are getting closer; but it is still different because 1 is a BATTERY and the other is just a controlled explosion.

    If you are going to be that way, why hasn't petroleum progressed? They have done shit to make it perform better. There is way more energy density in nitroglycerin... or nuclear fuel rods... Why don't we have personal reactors like they talked about in the 40s? Must be a conspiracy to get us to buy more oil... ;-)

  10. Re:real problem is: FEATURE CREEP on Vint Cerf: Data That's Here Today May Be Gone Tomorrow · · Score: 1

    DVD-RAM and DVD-R in cartridges, never exposed. Blueray wasn't even a name back when we did this. HD storage was a joke and way more expensive at the time. Tapes were expensive but were looked at as an option. Best of all, a long list of devices that could read the things being around for a long time. (Sure you can get PATA to SATA adapters, but will you be able to read an old HD's filesystem? probably.)

    Well, I'll bet $1,000,000 they will last 100 years. You can collect the money from my grandchildren :-p

    It doesn't matter as long as it lasts a long enough time to avoid upgrading and migrating data multiple times. It'll last beyond blueray and perhaps beyond it's replacement. It may be migrating to HDs today as far as I know... knowing them, probably RAID 5 without a backup (they kept thinking RAID 5 had built-in backup way back then... which BTW was hardware only back then.)

  11. Re:Sucks, but this is the new America on TSA Decides Against Allowing Small Knives On Aircraft · · Score: 1

    I used to take mine everywhere INCLUDING on the jets; before 9-11.
    Nothing was needing to be done; after that mess, nobody is going to give in to hijackers again. I would like to see what is done after a group does it with their bare hands... then we'll all have to be handcuffed to our seats.

  12. real problem is: FEATURE CREEP on Vint Cerf: Data That's Here Today May Be Gone Tomorrow · · Score: 2

    I've been part of archival problem planning. We went with DVD. now I am not there, I suspect they are thinking DVD sucks and are moving "forward" when the DVD was more than good enough and those plastic discs will last a century. mpeg-2 files will have open source decoders. Now physical readers will still be a problem... the only solution is to wait as long as possible and then switch to the next long lasting format - but not necessarily the newest one at that time. (which is why moving to blueray is a waste of money.)

    The biggest problem with other formats is the FORMAT; even with something like open office documents, the ODF format will have revisions and new features added and tweaks to the format. version 2, 3 etc. The features and changes that promote the creation of more and more formats is the biggest problem. Just like my above DVD video problem- if you go beyond your needs then you are complicating things with more and more formats.

    TEXT? sucks. we need WORD! Word 1.0? the app sucks... we need WORD 20! (and all versions in between to migrate the old docs...plus labor to deal with conversion issues...)

    Perhaps we need ARCHIVAL formats; like PDF, which has done besides the stupid additions Adobe has been making to it. Or just TEXT export... a less bloated output only format without the feature BS problems.

    Thankfully, email remains the same... sort of. although storage of the emails differs greatly; if you want to archive emails you need to pick a close-to-the-source method (and simple storage filesystem-- good luck reading that NTFS formatted disk image in 30 years.)

  13. NO. Police get caught doing bad things and... on Watching the Police: Will Two-Way Surveillance Reduce Crime? · · Score: 1

    Even when it is bad enough to make the local news and there is a video, nobody is fired or even really punished. It takes some serious stuff for real actions to be taken.

    Since the information is NOT public unless something forces the issue, I don't think it will make anybody more stepford. It might improve service and add some stress for a while.

  14. Re:Associations, tribalism on No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than an SUV · · Score: 1

    I did THAT on purpose to goat you people. People have a talent for nitpicking on possible hypocrisy and getting distracted (a nice ego defense) or using it as a distraction -- this goes on from childhood unto adulthood. So I put in some bait knowing somebody would bite.

    It really doesn't matter if both groups are the same in their levels of insanity - but in reality they are not the same and I personally dislike how everything is over simplified so often in this culture. Too often people mischaracterize things just to avoid the hypocrisy distraction from those... hypocrisy nazis, who I think cause more harm than the grammar nazis. Also, those twits who bring up Godwin's Law without thinking first.

    The anti Bush people were largely not as crazy as the anti Obama people out there, I've known them both (and I am both) so while I don't have statistics or studies, I have my little bit of personal experience and some reasoning:

    During Bush, it was NEW and on wider fronts. During Obama, he's just continuing most of the same things and taking them down the same logical path at a slower pace -(to let people adjust)- as if they both work for the same agenda... Ignoring the differences in the speed of decline, Obama simply has the benefit of being 2nd. People have accepted this stuff and nobody reported / fought when the groundwork was being set. The "leaps" from Obama are not that big or surprising - it is just a progression. It is still bad stuff.

    The idiocy level of this stuff today is so much higher; they'll grab onto batshit stuff along with legitimate things... some people I know are not bright enough to tell the difference - they just rant about this week's scandal and can't tell the difference between a birth certificate and assassination of Americans Abroad.

    I have relatives who excuse Bush and relatives who excuse Obama, in a few cases for the nearly the same crimes. Each one thought I was for the opposition party for a while, before dismissing me as an extreme idealist because I won't "realistically choose a side".

    The "right wing" is batshit and the "sane" ones can't do math or economics or history. But then in order to make the Democrats appear "left" you have to appear more and more extreme. The two of them have shifted to the "right" and if you can't see that clearly, just look at how extreme 1 side has to play the game today vs 30 years ago.

  15. I 2nd that on Montreal Union Wants a Camera On Every Policeman's Uniform · · Score: 1

    I 2nd the motion and move for a vote.

  16. Re:Associations, tribalism on No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than an SUV · · Score: 1

    I'm not enjoying the crazies on the "right" saying the same things about Obama that the reasonable people on the "left" said for Bush - because I expected it to happen. It would have been enjoyable had I not seen it coming. No real threat to the establishment would be allowed to win.

    The CFL study was just one I thought was well known which is why I referred to it and didn't bother to cite it. I didn't want the literal minded people to get all hung up on the individual topic of CFL. Tribalism is the source of many irrational behaviors and logical fallacies - a study doesn't have to connect ALL the dots just the couple it is tasked with trying to figure out. Not an easy task given how fuzzy and chaotic reality is to attempt to measure and quantify so then we can make qualitative judgements; because expert opinions and common sense are not as valuable.

    It is easy to pick on "conservatives" on the topic of the environment; the propaganda has been quite successful on their demographic. I knew it would spark a defensive reaction to those with that brand identity. Which is exactly what it is, brand identity and also tribalism.

  17. Chicken vs Egg problem on No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than an SUV · · Score: 1

    Oh so much pain and suffering! You didn't have a cheap mass produced century old replacement available over night; poor you. Get over yourself.

    Green washing is a problem and some terms have earned negative reputations but that study was a waste not because of factors like that having to be mitigated (every study has such problems, if only life was simple...) Irrational human behavior has plenty of evidence and study besides that 1 example that popped into my head. Don't get hung up on that 1 issue you happened to "suffer" so heavily over for some years...

    Catch-22 like situations prevent progress a lot of the time. Having some temporary "suffering" by complaining wimps creates the necessary shove that is sometimes needed for progress. Sure, it's possible that eventually cheap LED bulbs would happen someday but you don't know if it ever will happen or how many centuries it would take given that market forces would be set against it all the way up to the point where it is close to competing and can attract some investment (which tends to be more short term now than in the past.)

    There is a school of thought where most significant progress is attributed to WAR and the conclusion is that we need wars in order to provide the motivation to innovate; otherwise, progress is SLOW, stagnant, or doesn't even happen. I'm not saying I'm one of those, but the grain of truth they build their hypothesis upon exists and shouldn't be ignored.

    Going to the moon was a huge waste of tax payer money to a lot of people too. Since it was income tax, people didn't bitch so much about it.... but I wonder if they had to change to CFL... would the political will have been there?? After it's great successes, nobody wanted to say they bitched and/or opposed the whole thing. The CFL / LED thing will be forgotten on the bitching people will forget their past positions.

  18. Re:Associations, tribalism on No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than an SUV · · Score: 1

    Actually, I expected more comments like yours but instead slashdot posters are more literal minded and focused on the CFL study I referenced which was only an example of tribal irrational behavior; there are TONS of others out there, even a great book called "Predictably Irrational" which sadly tends to provide more research for propagandists and marketing people to manipulate people rather than raise awareness and promote THOUGHT.

    I'm just ecstatic that people are finally using the term tribalism! It's the evolved source for popular fallacies like bandwagon, tradition, and guilt by association.

    In the USA "conservative" is a heavily loaded word that has become more of a meaningless brand name... like a lot of other words that have been ruined in the language. I didn't want to use republican because that would distract too much despite being ideal for the topic since it IS a tribe. I know some drones and they identify more strongly with the conservative brand than the republican brand - even though conservative is supposed to just be a word not a brand name.

    It is easier to grab examples of these things from the USA (where i live, and the biggest environmental troublemaker) and from the conservative brand for multiple reasons. In the topic of the environment, it is a no brainer! Seriously, can you find better examples on the topic elsewhere? I think not!

    Hell, I read a marketing study showing how to sucker conservatives by changing the brand identity to include pollution and selfish waste which they could then get people to fuck themselves and ignore the REAL implications for themselves and their children/society. It was applied in Australia on their "conservatives" and resulted in the biggest increase in global warming skeptics anywhere! (This in a nation was feeling the extreme weather sooner and stronger.) By messing with people's sense of identity they hack their brains to work against themselves... Like hacking an antivirus into attacking legit files or one could think of it as a mental AIDs. I could go into how some identities are more susceptible to hacking than others but I think I already went over the parent's head.

    If somebody convinces people that a proper NERD reads slashdot so then self-identified nerds or wannabe nerds force themselves to read slashdot....that is the same tactic; whether or not that harms them is another topic.

  19. Mod parent up. on Too Many Smart People Chasing Too Many Dumb Ideas? · · Score: 1

    Interesting. Perspective on the problems is what frames it.

    We tend to use profit generation as a metric for intelligence.
    Mammon is the one true god; claiming to be otherwise is for suckers, actions speak louder than words.

  20. UAV? won't work. on Oculus VR Co-founder Andrew Reisse Killed In Auto Collision · · Score: 1

    They'll just run like mad to get away UAV or not. If they are in flight mode they'll instinctively run like a wild animal without reason. This is why somebody surrounded will jump out of the car and run hopelessly on foot - the survival instinct is strong in those perps...

    Real Solutions:
    GPS gun. Shoot the car with a tracking device.

    Use the car's built-in blackbox GPS cell modem (high end but often those features become standard)

    Cell phone tracking - detect any pings from the phone in the car then track it... even possibly ID the driver.

    Have all cars give off radio IDs (could even be audio) which can be triangulated accurately; which is being done today with gunshot sounds (even to the point of knowing the kind of gun.)

    Use computer tracking to smartly predict where to intercept.

    Stun gun for cars or remote shutdown of cars. Don't know why a stun gun system hasn't already been mandated. Radio freq stops all cars within range for example. You have zero rights to prevent such things; but the lawyers and prisons love that you are constantly given choices that can be used against you for their benefit.

  21. Associations, tribalism on No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than an SUV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are studies that show "conservatives" here in the USA will buy CFL bulbs on their own (if they think) but as soon as you label them "green" or with other labels and slogans that have been associated as belonging to the enemy tribe, they will fuck themselves just to not have anything to do with the opposing tribe.

    If you want things to get better you have to avoid terms associated by propagandists with tribalism and negative emotions. If you want the only have your tribe benefit and feel extra smug - then you continue to use the terms even after they've been ruined by propagandists knowing that the other tribe will harm itself in it's hatred of you. Depends on what kind of person you are. Me, I'm no Christian or Buddhist so I like to load things up knowing the fools will screw themselves.

  22. Re:Cripes this is ridiculous on New York City Wants To Revive Old Voting Machines · · Score: 1

    Did Bloomberg decide to run again? Term limits can't stop him...

  23. If MS did this, we'd be talking about Clippy on Motorola Building "Self-Aware" Smartphone · · Score: 1

    I for one don't want devices predicting what I might want to do and then suggesting they can help me do it.

  24. You NEVER put a money man in charge on Apple Releases Basic iPod Touch, Possibly Foreshadowing iPhone Strategy · · Score: 1

    Bean counting people are fine for advice but you NEVER EVER put them in charge of anything. I knew things were going bad (or spoiling? puns intended) when the stock dividends were announced. Sounded like BS to me when they explained why they wanted to pay interest on their capital they had been getting for FREE.

  25. Re:Nothing to see here. on Judge Orders Child Porn Suspect To Decrypt His Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    The issues related to material possession are not being discussed nor are they relevant because those are crimes TODAY. The issue is the 5th amendment rights in regards to encryption... news for nerds.

    If you have such photos I'm saying you should be labeled a possible nutjob and have a shrink check you out - outside the traditional legal system. The expert can then rule you are just a normal dude and you can go on with your life without all the political BS that a criminal investigation and prosecution entails. The experts may even decide that some people are kept harmless with photos alone.

    My point is that the legal system and politicians are not fit to make mental health decisions. A health issue is not a criminal issue so the 5th would not apply. You can't plead the 5th just to hide anything, it's only for your protection against prosecution.

    Just getting people to recognize pedophiles as a mental health issue is an uphill battle... in a society that puts crazy people in jail with sane people and executes retards... (never forget the last one I heard about, the retard didn't finish his last meal saying "I'll finish eating when I get back.") A pedophile is NOT safe for society! The damage they do is HUGE and locking them up is a matter of public safety not a 1 size fits all prescribed punishment.

    It doesn't make much sense to lock them up BEFORE they do the crime; but currently our only preventive measure is to illogically assume possession of related materials is proof of a future crime. Like in the movie "Minority Report" but much easier to manipulate. However if you had experts check out these people when they stood out BEFORE they go on a mass killing spree or whatever... it wouldn't be a future crime; it would be more like testing for a disease before it causes harm to others. And Yes, I'm enough of a "big government" person I think they should have the right to screen people for diseases (and in the event of an epidemic they already have those powers.) Sure, it could be abused to some degree; what's new... but you'd need a conspiracy to get all the experts along the way to falsely classify you as a nutjob.