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User: LostCluster

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  1. List Washing on Fraudsters Abusing Canada's Do-Not-Call List · · Score: 0

    Here's the way you do it...

    Telemarketer comes up with a list. Telemarketer sends list to the Do-Not-Call team. Do-Not-Callers do the compare, and return only the numbers that were on the telemarketer's list that doesn't match the no-call list.

    Telemarketer gains the information of the numbers they can't call, but doesn't gain the whole no-call list unless they had it already.

  2. Re:Supernatural? on Televised RIAA Hearing Adjourned, Briefs Scheduled · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Publicity of the RIAA legal efforts is not their friend. Expose how to beat a weak argument, and that weak argument becomes even weaker.

  3. Re:Phantom power has it's use. on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 1

    An ATSC channel is 6MHz wide. From that, you get 6 mbps of real usable bandwidth. With that, you can compress the data to get more, and that's where your estimate of 19 mbps comes from.

    Just don't think you can compress that 19 and squeeze any more juice out...

  4. Democrat.Whitehouse.gov, Republican.Whitehouse.gov on Obama Staffers Followed Palin's Email Lead On Inauguration Day · · Score: 1

    Why does there need to be much downtime between the change in power? Couldn't the Office of the President Elect establish a ready-to-go e-mail server, that would be slid into place on the government rack at whitehouse.gov at Noon on Tuesday?

  5. Re:Why not download directly from Apple? on Trojan Hides In Pirated Copies of Apple iWork '09 · · Score: 1

    BitTorrent's legal use is for large files like Linux Distros and Revision3 shows where the copyright holder wants free distribution, where the charge to the user is assistance in further distributing the file.

    The Mac security model is based on getting downloads you can trust, and then signing-off on them. If you're getting iWork from BitTorrent, you have a chance to save yourself by realizing you don't have the real thing, but if you have the real thing to compare it to... install that.

  6. Re:Phantom power has it's use. on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 1

    Try messing with the time on your watch and it'll choke and never auto-set until you set it back. See, such WWVB Bolder, CO (NIST Radio, all the time information, all the time) clocks are designed to check around 2am when the signal is naturally easiest to get because of darkness. They're not actually downloading the time, but determining how far they are off from the set top-of-the-hour wave from the signal. If they have no idea when to check, they'll do nothing.

  7. Re:Phantom power has it's use. on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The savings is not the $2.95 cost of a switch... it's the lifespan of every coax connection in the area that's impacted. See, an RF network has enough energy to power a lightbulb... and just like a lightbulb things can burn out. If you remember V=IR from physics, you know that if the voltage stays the same, and a resistor is taken out of the network, up goes the current flow. Out burns the wire... and you don't have much of an idea where to look for the failure.

    All of your street-or-so's traffic is on the same RF carrier... and that network is monitored closely to keep the signal level. By powering down, you're making it harder to do that, and that could be a "bad neighbor" effect on somebody else's TiVo.

  8. Re:Phantom power has it's use. on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 2, Informative

    A DTV channel is roughly 6 megabits/sec. "True HD" 1080i or 720p is roughly 6 mb/sec. So, you're basically downloading that megabyte on a 56k modem if you're lucky.

    Not to mention, you can't trust that data downloaded yesterday reflects today's TV lineup. Watch all the 480i .2's on NBC stations scramble now that NBC Weather Plus has been subtracted. Even though the shutdown was announced three months ago, some stations still haven't made up their minds what to carry, and therefore are still changing lineups daily.

  9. Re:And What Part of This is News? on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is just like the IRS... you're expected to report income and deductions and self-certify your filing. If the government thinks you got it wrong, or just picks you out of a hat, they audit. If they allege you cheated, you're on the defensive.

  10. Re:Phantom power has it's use. on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 4, Informative

    Comcast wants its boxes to stay connected to the network at all times... remember, they're still using coax while the rest of data delivery went to multiple twisted pairs. Coax networks become unstable if users are constantly logging on and off. Back in the "bad old days", universities had to keep computers powered even when the employee who normally sits at that desk isn't there because too many shutdowns would cause there to not be enough draw on the RF signal, and the network would start burning out faster than usual.

  11. Re:How about fixing cable / sat DVR's and boxes on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cable/Sat DVR's don't know when they're going to get hit with a data download being addressed to them. They have to always be ready to take it, therefore always spinning. Besides that, it doesn't take that much power to keep the disc spinning, compared to frequent re-starts after stops.

  12. Phantom power has it's use. on Energy Star Program Needs an Overhaul · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You do want your TV to respond to your remote control, download it's clock-setting and other background data, and be ready to boot up in a timely manner? Don't ya?

    We can reduce it, but this is something that ain't going to zero.

  13. Re:wish tmobile would offer the same on Get Out of Sprint Free · · Score: 1

    eBay is also home to some of the scummiest web vendors I've ever seen. They'll send you a refurb phone marked as new, let you post a good service mark, then it'll go dead and you'll either be out your money, or have to pay them to fix it.

  14. Re:The people learn fast. on How To Suck At Information Security · · Score: 1

    One quarterly password scheme I've heard of is to pick a city that has 4 major sports teams, and rotate through the year with the current team's name followed by the number of the year's season being played.

  15. You're just being annoying. on Wireless Internet Access Uses Visible Light, Not Radio Waves · · Score: 1

    Light is part of the RF spectrum... just a particular part that the human eye can see. So is heat. We don't use these sections because they're very annoying to humans to have fluctuating seemingly randomly for transfer of data.

  16. Is this who we want doing this? on Feds Plot Massive Internet Router Security Upgrade · · Score: 1

    we really want to use new protocols from the government. They may put "warrantless wiretap" capabilities in...

  17. Re:photoshop all the easier... on The Presidential Portrait Goes Digital · · Score: 1

    There are portraits of the presidents Washington to Clinton on on the LOC's website. The White House also had a similar page... but the Bush admin deleted it.

  18. Re:huh? on The Presidential Portrait Goes Digital · · Score: 1

    It's a Congress created office funded by taxpayer and donated money that allows the incoming prez to hold press conferences and issue releases. Basically, it does things like pay the staff that announces who the cabinet officials will be, and works to have as many politically-selected positions filled on Jan 20 as possible.

  19. Re:some facts... on Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All · · Score: 1

    Well, it's been documented that it's possible to kill a teenager by internet information... just break their heart with a fictional love interest that dumps them so hard they commit suicide.

    "Safer" yes... "Safe" no.

  20. Re:Japanese Subways on Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All · · Score: 1

    I can't tell you how many times when I was younger I could prove my father wrong with information from the Internet. He eventually learned how to Google too.

  21. Re:No more reality cheques please on Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All · · Score: 1

    It goes like this... protocols are built by a small group of people, all of whom can be trusted. Then they let the public in, they trash it. Then regulators/enforcers come in and clean it up so the good public can enjoy, meanwhile there are calls for a new protocol to be built that's more resistant to being trashed. That effort fails, it gets trashed anyway. Regulators step in again, new protocol.

    Just keeps going and going and going...

  22. Re:Reminds me of a Southpark episode... on Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And part of the reason why part of the definition of an Amber Alert is that the kid cannot be expected to be with either of their parents... parental-custody-despite-court-order doesn't count.

  23. Remembering the good old days on Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All · · Score: 1

    I was a contributor to the Prodigy Online Service Trivia Area when I was 16... we had a safe roped-off Teen area where the only adults allowed were those who held the moderator tools to kick anybody acting up, and if you were above the age of 19 you were directed to the later in the night all-ages games.

    You couldn't trust a stranger... but anybody who hung out for any length of time over a reasonable span could be trusted. Not very many adults could appear at 4pm ET anyway. It's hard to fake intentions through months of encounters.

    I doubt my kids (if there ever are any) will ever have a similar experience. There's just no place online where you can meet random people and assume they'll be mostly good anymore.

  24. Re:That isn't enough $$$ on Call For Grant Proposals In Perl Development · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Six figure salaries for a programmer is a sign of doom for the language. Nobody else is willing to do your job because the rest of the world has moved on. If only I could have my days as a $35/hr. VB 6.0 programmer back.

  25. Re:keyloggers via wifi? on Mumbai Police To Enforce Wi-Fi Security · · Score: 1

    Well, the white hats wouldn't be able to decrypt the message (unless they get a shot of the screen via security cam) but the terrorist will show up on the camera buying his cup of joe, and unless they pay cash (for which they should be asked to show ID to get on the network) they'll be paying by a traceable credit card.

    Alone, it's a useless data point. But if they're already following the guy, score it as "terrorist chatter".